Goodbye 2012!

January 

• I rang in the new year at the park downtown 
• Made a trip out to Busan during Lunar New Year with Patty
• Chumpi was such a little butterball hehe
• I taught my awesome Harry Potter Camp!

February

• The Daejeon Science Museum is amazing!
• Yujin and Minseok’s birthday – our bartender friends ^_^
• The Love Collective gave us the iconic “Bear man!”
• The Ice Room in Seoul was memorable!
• One of the comfort women we met in the House of Sharing

March

• Matt’s birthday!
• Again…Chumpi is a beast~
• Crazy downtown costume dancer lol

April

• My friends in the Daegu 10k
• Our Jinhae trip
• Our Salsa performance
• Trying sundae AGAIN before our trip to Nami island

May 

• 2ne1 gave a free concert at the Yeongnam University Festival
• Goejae island was a beautiful trip

June

• Analie, Patty &  I went on a trip to Cheongseong
• The Musical Revue show
• Learning “Happy Birthday” in Korean class
• My beautiful wonderful students
• Yeonjung’s wedding
• I graduated from my Korean class

July

• Paragliding
• Helping out at the International Children’s Games
• Alice in Wonderland Camp
• Date with a Teacher program
• 2ne1 Concert!
• The Beijing morning market

August

• The Great Wall
• Eating Scorpions outside our hostel
• Our train ride in Taiwan
• Whitewater rafting in Taiwan
• Taepei
• “Oppa-ya Daegu Style” performing at the Bodypainting festival

September

• Our first city sponsored outdoor theater event!

October

• Hanging out on a rooftop near downtown
• The last few months of this year were me in a hospital for various reasons
• Halloween was epic!

November

• Patty left for America 
• I got involved a lot more with a group at my church working with sex trafficking organizations
• I voted for the first time ever!
• The last Musical Revue show
• Sillyness occurs
• Alice in America-land was a hit
• Thanksgiving was almost just like home
• Donghyeon was born!

December

• Filmed a trailer for a short film
• Our Christmas party included nunchucks
• and Jenga
• It snowed a lot this month! 3 Fridays in a row!

And of course, as is the expat life, there were a few people to say goodbye to this year:

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A Week in Photos #9

Since Masan, I ate burritos for like 4 days straight…so like a total of 12? ^__^ Yeah, I know I know…but I needed to savor the awesomeness that is cilantro. Jiseon came over and we made guacamole. Sadly the avocado was not ripe so it had no strong flavor and was hard as a rock. We got creative and steamed it until soft. Adding lemon solved it all. It was amaaazing. 

I’ve been rocking these awesome new slippers that Chris sent me from back home. Oh he knows me too well lol. I could probably almost outdo Cookie Monster in a Cookie Eating Race. 

As per usual, I had to make a run to the hospital for another checkup for my school. Thankfully I made a case for myself and made sure I didn’t have to get ANOTHER x-ray done. Woo hoo …no radiation! And then I saw this woman, and she made the stressful visit a bit more humorous. Hehee shopping with an IV still in her arm. Epic. 

I went skiing this past weekend to Phoenix Park, located in the same city that the 2018 Olympic Games will take place in. It was epic! Mostly because I thought I was going to die (since I always get pretty hurt every time I go skiing). But the weather was perfect! no wind at ALL and so it wasn’t even cold! And it was natural snow. PLUS, it was really foggy but only at the top of the mountain. It was surreal skiing through it, quiet beautiful! Most of all, I did pretty well actually~! I was shocked! 

My students finished their exams so really I’ve become a babysitter this week. I hate when exams are at the beginning of the week. Throws my whole schedule off. So here is one of my favorite students watching a Korean drama, because it’s filled with “handsome boys” according to them. I let them watch and explain to me in English, but I had to laugh as I looked up and saw Lisa knitting. I laughed and told her that she looked like an ajumma (technically a married woman, but we use it to just mean old) knitting away while watching soap operas. 

Dory left this past week so it was another goodbye. I went to her house to hang out and here she is showing off her awesome 90’s folder she actually had brought from the States. 

The cold here has become unbearable! (>_<) I’ve lost two pairs of boots to the wet cold weather. Oh well, at least that means shopping is a must! lol  

My students are picking up their new textbooks for next year. In Korea, the school term starts in March (Not in September). I was a little sad because these 2nd graders are picking up their 3rd grade books (aka their 9th grade books) and I won’t be teaching them since I only teach the first two grades in middle school. Sad! 

And of course it’s Christmas tomorrow! So cannot wait to spend time with awesome wonderful people here ^_^ 

A Week in Photos #8

Animals

Pimped out cat in a tattoo shop in Downtown Daegu. Daaaang he got style! Purple wings?! Wow that is amazing! 

 Cutest dog I have ever seen!

Even dogs need to Gangnam Style lol. 

This breaks my heart a little. This is actually my friend Chris’ picture. He teaches at an elementary school and this random Monday, like 5 of his students brought chicks in a cup into his classroom. He was confused and found out that apparently this was this old guy selling them for like 90 cents outside of the school! And OBVIOUSLY these chicks don’t last long, just look at it! It looks so miserable ;(

Autumn

The view from the teacher’s lounge. The colors in autumn are so beautiful! I enjoy the view while drinking the citron tea you see in the pic. 

The ginkgo tree outside of Camp Walker (the American military base near my school). This trees are so beautiful right now! 

Bits of pink also pepper the fall.

I love that there are roses out in the midst of autumn and ginkgo trees and pine trees!

The red and yellows just stand out so much!

Around Daegu

Beautiful temple near Downtown Daegu

Instead of selling chicks in front of my school  [-_-], this lady is selling cotton candy ( a nicer alternative).

My Pepero stash! Oooooo yuuuuummmmm! Thank you for the Pepero ♥

Had to say goodbye to Patricia who headed home after being here for a year. Aww this is her on the way to Incheon airport. ;(

The remnants of another Pepero Day. 

A Week in Photos #7

Wooooo! I got a bicycle and I’ve been riding along my ‘hood checking out the little alley ways I was too lazy to walk to since they were on hills. Haha just kidding. In all seriousness, I am glad I got to overcome my fear in Taiwan this past summer. I haven’t ridden a bike since like high school. I have this stupid fear of not having my feet planted to the ground (thus also afraid of heights and deep water). Any who, Dave and Matt got me to ride a bike at a park in Taiwan. So this is my first ride through my neighborhood and Dave and I happened upon this awesome spray painted graffiti stencil of Natalie Portman from her first movie, “Leon, the Professional”. And you know what a sucker I am for Natalie Portman, she’s like my acting hero. 

I’m trying to enjoy these beautiful last days of fall. The weather is perfect. Not too cold, not too hot. The sky seems to glow this deep brilliant blue. love it. 

See what I’m saying? This beautiful shot was taken this past weekend when I went to my church’s conference. It was nice to get out of Daegu for the day and enjoy the country. The Chimsan Retreat Centre was just wonderful. 

A breath of fresh air…

A group of us got together at Dave & Matt’s place to make some homemade pizza! Dave made the dough and everyone else brought an ingredient. It was aaaaawesome! We got to try each other’s creations and man was I stuffed. Here is Yujeong making her own pizza. The best part of this whole thing is that as a foreigner living alone here in Korea, you often can’t eat everything in your fridge. So this potluck pizza night is awesome for emptying out your fridge haha. 

Ha, no comment necessary

I got to make a dessert pizza! With the last bit of pizza dough left, Dave made a thin crust and let me top it off with a sweet lil something something while everyone sat around and  proceeded to watch “Honey Boo Boo”. If you do not know about this show…well … Youtube it. ::cringe::  My Korean friends were horrified haha, we had to assure them that no, not all of America is like that.

Here is the recipe if anyone’s interested. 

INGREDIENTS:

Pizza dough (You can make your own or buy pre-made dough)

1 TBSP butter, melted

Cinnamon

Streusel:

1/2 cup plus 1/3 cups all purpose flour

1/3 cup white sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 TBSP vegetable shortening (in Korea we lack this so I used butter and just 1 TBSP of oil) 

2 TBSP vegetable oil

Icing:

1 cup powdered sugar
1 TBSP milk
1/2 tsp. vanilla

DIRECTIONS:

Mix together streusel ingredients with a fork, or your clean hands, then side aside. To make the pizza, pat dough into a 12 inch pizza pan that has been sprayed with oil.  Perforate pizza dough with a fork (this keeps bubbles from forming), then brush with 1 TBSP melted butter. Sprinkle cinnamon all around buttered crust. Top pizza crust with streusel mix.

Bake at 460 F (about 237 C) for 8 to 9 minutes depending on the thickness of the pizza.  Mix icing ingredients until it is of a drizzle consistency. If it is too thick, then thin with a small amount of milk until you have reached your desired thinness. When finished baking, top with icing . That’s it!