Good-bye Dinner

Damn girl left me at the bus stop to go on vacation!

And so it begins. The final countdown. And yes, I have now gotten that song stuck in your head. 

You're welcome. 

Kelly left me last Saturday, and after plenty of drinking, and lots of eating I of course cried. I'm getting really sick of that emotion. I have never cried as much as I have in Korea.

Now in my final week at CIS I have had some trying times. I have tried to pack, clean, and say good-bye and at the moment my students really don't care. We shall see tomorrow if that is the truth or not. I would at least like a giant hug from each of them. I am going to miss them immensly.

Final teaching day together.

Cathy, Krista, Gia, and Laura at the teachers welcome/good-bye dinner

I'm ABANDONING her. 

Ice with red bean jam. Interesting.

Tomorrow is my last day teaching at CIS. I am sure I will have a lovely blog to post again on Saturday before I get on the plane. I fully intend to type as I fly and record the wonderous moments. Vic and I got seats together, thanks to the savy traveler my mom has made me. I requested normal food, and I am so excited to get home.

I have every notion that I will be a zombie for the first week, but I really hope not. I want to be shopping, eating, and learning to drive again. Hopefully tomorrow goes well. Just a normal teaching day as always. 

Three Weeks

I have three weeks. I have already sent one box of clothing home. I have another that is sitting, full, in my apartment. The rainy season has started. It's getting very hard to roll out of bed in the morning. I am counting down the days, but dreding my plane all at the same time. I realized that I have 14 teaching days left with my morning kids, 8 with my afternoon kindergarten, and 6 with my afternoon elementary kids. 

I have a list a mile long of stuff I need to get done, but it hasn't gotten any shorter lately. This week has been a really good one though.

Last weekend I didn't do a whole lot, but I got another box packed. I cleaned my apartement a bit and went out last Friday night. It was a good night of food, friends, and drinking. The new teachers (who took over for Francesca and Kaylee) are really cool. 

Last Friday during school the 6 year old classes finished our Sports theme, and had a mini-Olympics. It was a lot of fun. Great way for our kids to play together and get some of that energy out. 

Thursday was the 4th of July. Now normally I am at the parade in my mom's hometown, and we Polka in the street, hang out with the whole family, and have a great time. This year was a bit different. We worked. I did however Polka with Victoria in Kelly's classroom. We decided that worked out well, and we were awesome at it, knew the whole song. After school Kelly, Laura, Victoria, and I went downtown for a burger and a beer. Then we hit a couple bars and we celebrated like it was the 4th. Kelly and I had a great time, and TP even played country music, it was like the perfect night.

Friday we had Market Day at school. This is an event I took part in the first week I was in Korea last year. This year Laura and I were in charge of the Sports Center. Our kids got to play two games, one of  which involved trying to eat a dangling chip without using their hands. And of course I took pictures. The other game involved them being in two teams and they had to flip them to their team color. Lots of fun, and I think the kids enjoyed it.

The best part was coming back from lunch and Cathy, amazing woman that she is, told us we should watch a video and have library time in the afternooon. Love.
 

Well it's pouring rain outside, and there is a chance of rain for several days this week. I can't believe I am coming home so soon! 

Oh Clare

Pulled Pork Poutine, it's a Canadian thing with a twist.
Fries, cheese curds, gravy, and pulled pork. AMAZING!

Gotta love Disney

This is how Victoria and I
celebrate the 4th. 

Happy Birthday America!

Made It

Well I made my choice. I am coming back to the states. I withdrew my application from the recruiting company. I feel good about it. Now I need to schedule my license tests.

Saying Good-Bye

We will miss you!

So Kaylee has made it back to MI. We celebrated her last night in Daegu with lots of darts, tears, and laughs. It was a very successful night out, on a Thursday. We also said good-bye to Francesca, who arrived in March. See some people do act on the error of their ways right away. She was headed back to the states to finish up her master's. It's pretty awesome back-up plan.

I'm at 40 days until I am done at CIS, and 42 days until I am on a jet plane back to MN!

My kids are starting to really impress me. As much stress as my job causes me, my kids are doing great things. At one point I said my hair was driving me bananas. So now if I have to fix my hair they say "Teacher, banana hair!" It's cute. I routinely get "Sam Teacher is (pretty, cute, silly)" I also get "Sam Teacher I love you" or "Sam Teacher I no love you" in which case I tell them they need to say Sam Teacher I don't love you. At least it's a complete sentence. Lol

I think my last weeks will fly, or at least I am hoping they do. I have so much packing to do!!!

Kaylee's last time card

This is James, he is one of my afternoon kidergarteners. He has the same mannerisms as my next door neighbor from back home. It is scary. This kid is adorable.

Waffling

I am waffling. No, I am not eating copious amounts of waffles, which sounds awesome, but I am seriously trying to figure out the next step with life. I love Korea, I have had some amazing adventures, met some of the greatest charactors possible and experienced so many things. Then I think about home. I want to sit on the deck, watch tv, hang out at the fence with the neighbors, lay in the grass, and complain about the crappy traffic because of the snow.

Korea has changed me. I always had a sense of adventure, safe adventure, but I wanted to go out and do things. I have done that. I have made new friends, lived in a foriegn country, and had some wild nights. One of my best friends is leaving on Friday and I don't know how anything could be okay after that. One of the reasons I love Korea is because who I have shared it with. These other girls have become my family. I don't know if I want to leave this city and start fresh.

On the other hand Korea is a huge draw. I have security here. Health insurance, paid apartment, electric bills that would make any person happy. Again, my friends make it even better. Kelly and I keep telling Kaylee she has to come back, and she thinks she might, but I don't think she will. And today, while trying to grasp that, I don't know if I will ether. I guess the next two or three weeks will be very telling.

I got my possible flight reservation, and right now I am on the long haul flight to Toronto with my friend Victoria. If we can get seats together I might be the happiest person in the world. I go back to the states on July 27th. I am terrified and exilierated all at the same time. I love home, but it will be so foreign to me. It's going to be a major shock to my system.

My countdown is 46 days. I only have 46 days to hug my friends, clean out my apartment, get rid of so much stuff that I won't bring back with me, and enjoy Korea. On the other had I only have 47 days until I see my family, eat a pizza, hug my dog (who will inevitably wiggle away), swing on a swing, and walk in the grass with my bare feet. Hopefully mom waters the lawn so it isn't too dry.

See guys, I am a waffle. Kind of like Mr. Potato Head when he put all his body parts on a tortilla and toppled over. Toy Story 3, of course.

What does life hold next? Anyone have any opinions? 

What in the world am I going to do without them?

My co-teacher Cathy. This woman is a godsend. No matter how
crappy my day is, Cathy can make it better.

Did you know? Apparently I drink beer now. Watch out Leinenkugel's
I will finally be able to enjoy the brewery tour!

This is Tony. He is me in tiny human form. We both enjoy driving the Koreans crazy, and wearing "inappropriate" footwear on field trips. 

The Heat is On

Yes, I do mean that both physically and metaphorically.

I just got the worst news possible. My boss just informed me that July 22, 2013 is not my last day. I will be here, teaching, until the 25th. That's three extra days, that are not in my contract. Three days are not that big of a deal, but it is the principle of the thing.

I have no words for how angry I am. Oh and I looked at my Visa and hey guess what, my final entry is July 8th. I now have to contact the embassy and figure out what the heck that means. If I over stay my visa it's a huge fine.

Lovely day in Daegu.

I believe that explains my mood. Lol

My Students

So a friend from home asked me to give you all an update about what my students are learning and how they are all doing so here it goes.

Phonics: We are half-way our second phonics book. My kids are learning short vowel sounds. So we are doing words like; mat, hit, dam, jam, red, and jet. They are doing really well with it. Some days they have a bit of trouble being loud enough, and they lack enthusiasm, but I am pretty silly so we work it out.

Writing: We are busy in our writing book. The kids get new sight words every week and we practice them everyday. It's crazy that they are able to pick all of this up so fast. I feel like I would be a blubbering idiot if this was expected of me. Their handwriting is improving and it's so cool to see how far they have come. I still have a student who forgets letters in her name, but she doesn't look at her name tag to even try and get the answer right.

Reading: We have moved from our high frequency stories to a book that has a small story a week. We focus on comprehension and what the story was about. We add vocabulary every week.

My kids love Science but the science curriculum we have stinks. It is pretty ridiculous to think that they understand any of what is going on, and it is not that interesting. Most of the time the "experiment" is really just a craft for me to put together and talk about. Yay

We have Music and Gym with an outside Korean teacher once a week. The kids really enjoy that. I kind of enjoy the music class, the teacher sings American songs, but doesn't actually look up the English words so some of the lyrics are a bit off.

My afternoon elementary class is hysterical. I have the same awful co-teacher from last semester but the kids make it worth it. They are quick witted and funny. They speak wonderful English (most of them do) and they think my last name is Donkey. They also spell Minnesota minesoda. Good times.

Well that's just a little insight into my wonderful classes. Hope that helps. I will miss these kids when I leave, but that just isn't enough to put up with my crazy boss and co-teachers.

Spontaneous Seoul

The awesome Friday dinner
I made

New Chinese restaurant 

Did you get the word play? Pretty great right? Well this past weekend was a whirlwind. I feel like I need a weekend to recover from my weekend. Friday night was a good one. Kaylee and I hung out, ate dinner, watched a movie, and just enjoyed our drinks quietly.

Saturday was a little bit different. We finally motivated ourselves to get lunch at 2pm (at a new Chinese restaurant). The restaurant was interesting. They serve shark fin soup, which we absolutely didn't get but it was on the menu. We had fried rice and garlic chicken. From what I remember it was pretty close to Chinese food back home, haven't eaten meat in my Chinese food in a while.

Cherry Blossoms at night

Kaylee tried to sleep on
the train, silly girl.

After lunch we went to sit on Kaylee's roof, it's much more appealing than mine. Kaylee's guy friend (I don't have a good term for him, we call him Dude) hung out with us. He was headed to Seoul that night and invited us along. Now, if you know me at all you know that I am like my mother, I need a plan. So when I turned to Kaylee and said "Let's go to Seoul," she was a bit shocked. By 7pm we were on a train to Seoul.

Now Grandma and Grandpa you should probably stop reading, I don't want you to get the wrong impression.

We started with dinner (probably our 4th meal of the day) at about 10:30pm. We were out until about 7:30....a.m. Yep I finally did it. I stayed out, drinking, and singing Noribang, until the next morning. Mind you this is not uncommon in Korea but it was pretty crazy for me. I could have used my sunglasses when we got back to the hotel that morning.

Awesome soup

I needed some help. 

We got a couple hours of sleep and we were off again. Dude took us Insadong, which has all of these great "authentic" shops, mostly everything is handmade. It's a tourist spot. We saw a Palace and the President's house, called the Blue House. It has a blue roof.

Then we went to a fabulous restaurant where I had this amazing soup. In Korea they have this great soup where they stuff a chicken, a whole chicken with rice and herbs. Then they boil it for hours. Then they serve you the whole chicken with broth. It was amazing. Of course I ate it wrong, as I always do with Korean food and Dude had to help me with the chicken extraction, you have to move it to a second bowl.

Awesome? Nope, wrote
it wrong

Beautiful day for cherry blossoms. 

We then went north of City Hall and went to a small museum where they show you the history of a war between Japan and Korea. Korea won a battle at sea with 13 ships against the Japanese 133. We saw a 4D show about it, and even wrote our names in Hangul. It was absolutely amazing. I am so glad that we had someone who knew about all of this stuff.

We walked along a man-made river for a bit and then took off to the Cherry Blossom Festival. It was great to see all those trees in bloom. While Dude gave us an awesome tour I learned that different parts of the military are responsible for different bridges in Seoul. If at any point NK made it to Seoul the military would blow up all the bridges to the lower part of Seoul. Pretty crazy right?


We finally made it back to Daegu at 8pm on Sunday night. Talk about a whirlwind.

Making fools of ourselves. 

Rhetoric and Panic...Just Kidding

Love my girls

So it has been almost an entire month since I have posted. Crazy. I'm sorry everyone. I have been busy, but that's no excuse. I should be updating more often. It's pretty crazy to think this time last year I was having my final meeting with the School of Education to receive the last check off my list to graduation. I feel like a whole different person since then.

So of course the thing on everyones mind is, what is going on in South Korea. We aren't dead, we aren't panicked, we aren't rushing to get bottled water or rations. Life is going on as if the North is a tiny cat running in the street, no one pays any attention. I promise, I am registered with the embassy and I know where to go in case of emergency. Don't panic...yet.

Field Trip Day!

School has been school. My friend Kaylee will be leaving in less than two months. I don't know how I will say goodbye to her. Kelly and is trying to convince us all that we should move to Seoul together. I would be up for it, but we would need to find jobs pretty soon. We went on a field trip to a bronze ware museum yesterday. It was a good excuse to get out of school. Not what I would pick for kindergarten but no one asks the teachers. 

I am still giving Korea a lot of consideration. I really do love the country, I just hate this job. I have a nanny job possible I think, hopefully I have another interview with them soon. I don't know what the next step is. I just know that will everything I have done in Korea I am ready for almost anything. I've learned to live in a place where I can't read most of the signs and I can't communicate with a majority of the people.

No Socks! And there is
 some grass

The weather is starting to turn around. We has a couple great days and then it got cold again. Yes, I know I can't complain. It's not a blizzard or anything. Tomorrow is supposed to be 70. Can't wait to find some grass and just lay in the sun. I know I will regret this, basically as soon as I get home, but I miss grass.

Maybe I will throw all caution to the wind and leave for CO like I wanted to after graduation. Apply for a license and just see how it goes. I feel like I could accomplish almost anything.

I miss everyone so much. Hope MN and WI aren't too cold. I'll be sure to post a lovely spring day picture tomorrow when I am laying in the green grass. Hehe

Happy Birthday Kelly!

I caught Alicia's bouquet 

Oh Easter Celebration. Gotta love my kids.

Afternoon Kindergarten

Waves

So this will be a different kind of post. It's more a reflection than a response or a story. And it's more for my benefit than yours I'm sure.

I feel like a beach ball. I'm not on the beach but I'm not floating in the ocean. I feel stuck. I'm pushed one way and then another, but I haven't made up my mind yet.

I am continually thinking about what's next. Do I keep applying for teaching jobs? Do I keep applying for nanny jobs? Do I look in the states or somewhere new? Or do I find another place in Korea? It's not black and white and it's not easy either. I am really liking Korea, now when the raining season hits and my hair gets huge you never know. But right now I'm liking Korea. I have great friends, the country isn't bad, if you know what's going on and keep up to date. I still don't like my job, but I could find another one, I'm already here.

I have never been so conflicted. I knew what I wanted before I even started college. I knew what I wanted throughout college. And now I'm not sure what the next step is. I make good money here, I have a decent setup. Do I leave that for the possibility of a job in the states?

So many questions, and too much lost sleep. The wanderings of my mind continue.

A Month, A Long Weekend, and 900+

Well it's March people! Holy moly time has been flying by! February passed pretty fast. It was a bumpy month. I thought about quitting, just packing it in and leaving for good. I didn't, obviously, but I really thought about it. I started a new class in this last month. I have went to Seoul and that was a lot of fun, for a long weekend. I love long weekends.

I started a new class. Afternoon kindergarten. They gave me more fetuses! Now let me let you in on a little secret, they are adorable. I liked that class, up until today. My adorable, manageable, class of 8 turned in 11. Two of those children are 7 years old, so they sit an look bored and one even tried to yell at me today. That didn't last long. Now there are too many for my small classroom and I don't have a clue how this will work out.

What else is going on in the wonderful world of Korea. Well I am starting to plan my life after Korea. I only have a few months left and then it's onto the next adventure. So far it could be a nanny job, pretty much anywhere, or possibly a teaching position in AK (the district is the size of MN, so that could be anywhere too). You never know!

Korea has taught me a lot of things so far. I can actually live somewhere without speaking the vast majority of the language. Mind you Korea is pretty accommodating, but still it's an accomplishment. I have definitely learned to be better at throwing up my hands and just letting things happen as they may. I have also learned that although I can't plan everything I still like to be a planner. So I am hoping to have an August plan soon.

I miss everyone back home, but believe it or not I am not homesick anymore. It hits when it's a birthday  or an event but I am feeling pretty good. Hopefully another adventure is on the horizon. You never know, if I don't have something planned for August I might just take off to see Thailand or the Philippines before I come back home.

Hopefully it won't be another month before I write.

Can't believe my blog has almost 1,000 views! Didn't see that one coming at all. Thanks everyone!

Lunar New Year

So this new school year is kicking my butt. Yes, that's right, Korea starts their new school year in January (Technically in March).My new kids are driving me insane. It's not all their fault, they can't understand much of what I say. It's also the person I have to teach with.

My new co-teacher is giving my little patience a test. The woman rearranges my classroom, almost daily. Moving my materials for class, changing the board schedule, changing the things she wants us to do in class.

Korea has gotten the best of me. As much as I wish I could be all rainbows and butterflies it is far from reality here. January was okay, not great but bearable. Now it is February and although I have  long weekend this weekend I am not exactly in a chipper mood.

Tonight after my last class of the day I had a meeting with the principle and my former co-teacher. Mind you this is during the only prep time I have today. I had emailed the principle to tell her that no, her extra projects were not done, I don't have enough prep time (and now she is taking my only hour of the day). She went on for almost a half an hour questioning my passion for teaching, my love of children and work ethic.

Great way to start a weekend. I love to be insulted and degraded by my boss. I of course started to cry, lovely, show weakness to the Koreans. I give up.

If Korea is the best year of my life like everyone keeps insisting it is they really haven't lived. I loved my student teaching placement in North Minneapolis. I drove to work in the wee hours of the morning, I did lesson plans and classroom at home. I wanted to do as much for my students as I could. In Korea I look forward to the moment I can walk out of school and not see my students for the rest of the day.

I didn't know if Korea would change me or not when I first got here. I have now realized that it absolutely has. I am even more determined to get back to the states and be that teacher who takes work home every night and loves it. I want to teach in a school with people I respect and look up to. I want to use curriculum that is interactive and engages the students. And most of all, I want someone to appreciate what I do. In Korea I am wrong 99% of the time, and when I am not wrong, it's just expected that I go above and beyond.




On a lighter note yesterday we had a Lunar New Year celebration. Here are some super cute pictures.

Here is my class they look like angels, right? 

Whole outfit and my favorite student Allie

All the six year-old students and teachers.
That's the Principle Mrs. Lee on the far left and Mrs. Kim far right

The students bowed to us, crazy!

Christmas is Over and I'm still here

Yes, I know, I am very far behind on my blog. It's been an entire month since I posted and I have absolutely no intention of trying to recap the entire month. Christmas arrived and left with a wonderful amount of fan fair and stress.

School was awful and absolutely still is. At the end of December I had to switch classroom write schedules, and a whole list of other things that Koreans think is necessary. None of which are necessary to provide a good education to students. Currently I have a new batch of students, and when I say new I mean they are fetuses when it comes to English. Not a word. They are always touching each other, pushing and pulling, yelling in Korea and the amount of work the Koreans want them to do is ridiculous. I should inform you that my new Korean co-teacher for this class speaks about as as much English as my students, but she has all the "great" ideas about what I can do better.

I am a puppet at school. Not a teacher, not part of a team, not respected or thanked, just a puppet. Thankfully there are other puppets with me. There will be 5 of us leaving in July, I don't know that many of us will cry.

Christmas was by far the most amazing time I have spent in Korea. I could not have asked for it to have been better. Seriously. School was done and I had the whole weekend to clean and get ready, I needed it.

Too many hours of travel, and they still
let me take their picture on the bus.

Mom and Jake arrived at ICN on Monday night. We finally made it to Daegu at about 10pm. Jake and I went out for a quick drink and a game of beer pong downtown. The kid is able to drink in this country and my friend Elizabeth wanted to meet him before she left for Jeju. Mom wrapped presents while we were out, yes that was her choice. We came back and it was like Christmas exploded. There were presents everywhere and I had American things all over the place. She brought cereal, soup, shampoo, condition, medicine, candy, cheese packets, jam, batteries (for my Nook light, can't find them here), new sweatshirt and socks. It was awesome.

Jake was served a Christmas shot

Christmas morning in Korea was Christmas Eve back home. Thankfully we were able to Skype with the family and open presents with them. It was amazing to see everyone. My cousins did a great job being Price is Right models so we could see all the presents. I got some great presents, although nothing will top being 6500+ miles away, with Mom and Jake, opening presents on Skype with everyone.

Apartment in Busan

Christmas Day we headed for Busan (just as I was getting a cold). Arrived at our apartment stay for the night right on time. It was actually a great place. The location was a bit far away from everything, but it was only one night. We were able to meet up with Jayna and she gave us a great tour of Busan. Dinner at a Thai restaurant, mosh pit at the Christmas Tree Festival, Seafood Market street, Busan Tower. It was an amazing night.

Haeundae Beach

The next day we were headed back to Daegu but first the beach. We were only two subway stops from the beach, and we could see it from the apartment. We saw the beach, and grandma would have flipped, the sea gulls were pretty friendly with the people. We went to the Busan Aquarium, can't say I planned that one.

Made it back to Daegu in one piece. Trains, subways, taxis anything works. Checked in at the lovely Novotel downtown. It was a really nice place. We went to Buy the Book for Christmas dinner, which was a great meal. Mom had turkey and Jake and I had Tofurkey. It was a great night all around. I called it an early night, because my cold was getting the best of me. Nothing wrong with a comfy bed and a book in my opinion, that is a vacation. Jake went out and explored, of course, which meant there were two people worrying about him the entire time.

Thursday was another day in Daegu. We went to Seomun Market (pronounced Sah-Moon Market). Shopped for a pretty long time, before we got very tired and hungry, that's what marathon shopping does to a person. Went to get lunch, which was amazing. We had Little Italia, and let me tell you, yum. I ended up heading back to the hotel to catch a nap, ended up just resting. My cold was getting the better of me. We met up with Elizabeth for dinner that night. She ended up not being able to go to Jeju. We had Indian food for dinner at a place near my apartment. So good.

Indian dinner

We went out downtown after that. It was a lot of fun to watch Jake take on Elizabeth at beer pong again. He lost, but not by too much. I took two shots and made both, that was pretty awesome. It was a really good night all around.

That was when the adventure really got started. It snowed on Thursday night and continued into Friday. In Korea snow is strange, in Daegu it's almost unheard of to get 14cm of snow, roughly 5 inches. That wouldn't stop us much in MN, but it shuts the whole city down here. No taxis to speak of, buses were running an hour late. It was awful.

This is how Korea deals
with snow.

We missed out train at 11:30am, and didn't even make it out of the hotel room until lunch. We did indeed get two taxis to the train station, after the amazing concierge flagged them down. Waited in the freezing cold train station for 3 hours before our train left. Oh Korea. Finally made it to Seoul.

Saturday was a bright and early day. DMZ tour at 7:30am. We had to check in at 7am and we left the hotel at 6:15am. Ugh. The DMZ was amazing though. We were in the tunnel, got to see the whole thing. KORIDOOR really took care of us, the USO did a great job. I am glad we picked that tour, I think it was well planned. I just wish it hadn't been snowing so we could have seen more of N.Korea. And btw, our military escort was pretty dang cute, but he was from Texas and Alicia would disown me for that one...

Saturday night was a night of recovery. I was dying. So tired and so sick, it was ridiculous. I was in a very comfy bed, with plenty of feather pillows and an English movie on the TV. I don't think anyone back home understands how much of a vacation that was for me.

Sunday was a whirlwind day. It was the last day Mom and Jake would be in Korea. By that point I am sure they were ready to leave. Probably pretty sick of me and my cold by then. I don't know that there has ever been a time when we spent an entire week together.

Sunday we had an adventure getting to the Seoul Museum of Art, to see the Tim Burton exhibit. The taxi driver didn't really know where we were going, and my phone is only so helpful. I did finally find the address in Korean and out taxi driver did get us there is one piece. The exhibit was really cool. I am glad I had heard about it and that we were able to make it.

We didn't make it to the war museum, you can only learn so much about the wars Korea has been in before both museums and war is boring. We ended up getting lunch at a random subway stop I had read about and found Mexican food. Now it might not be that exciting to anyone else, but you cannot get good Mexican food in Daegu. Yes, there is a place that serves something passible, when you are desperate, but the American version of Mexican food in Seoul was amazing. It was like sitting at home.

Seoul from Seoul Tower

After lunch we found a taxi (who spoke amazing English) and he took us to Seoul Tower. Talk about a way to make things happen. Go up the mountain, in a packed cable car, walk across the mountain to the tower, wait in line to get in an elevator. So many steps to this process. We made it up there are the the sun had about another half hour before it would set. So we stayed until it was dark, and saw Seoul at night. It was a great sight.

Monday morning came way too fast. Mom and Jake were packed up and headed back to the airport. I stayed at the hotel, to watch the dismal Packer game. Jake gave me two hugs before he left, seriously, that doesn't happen. Mom and I totally cried, the only time on the whole trip.

Temple is Busan

Near Busan Tower

Lotte Department Store, random showcase of awesome

"You may only take pictures that way" said our cute escort at the DMZ

North Korea!

Seoul from Seoul Tower

It was an amazing Christmas.

My Peanut Butter Captain Crunch is almost gone, my Reece's Peanut Butter Cups are toast, and the tomato soup is looking to be eaten very soon. I have started to dream about fresh vegetables and fresh fruit, they don't do well here. I want a big bowl of baked spaghetti with smoked mozzarella cheese. Is that so much to ask?

Alicia gets married in a little more than 3 weeks. I am not ashamed to say that I have cried over the fact that I will not be there. Her dress is gorgeous and her cake topper couldn't be more perfect. If only I could pull out a can of chocolate frosting.

Almost half way done, I won't be staying. I'll be more than ready to go home.