awesome!

all of the sudden i am able to sign into my blog AT SCHOOL! i can update so much more now! although i only have 5 days of school left! lol

i'm currently waiting on my co-teacher to show up at school so we can go eat dinner and then go to the school concert- i think it will be the school orchestra and maybe some other kinds of performances. i'm happy to go to the concert but i'm afraid of what it'll be like sitting next to my insane co-t the whole time...sigh...lol we'll see.

i'm SUPER jittery right now because i had TWO tiny cups of the instant coffee that comes out of the machine downstairs. it's milk and sugar coffee and it must have a higher percentage of caffiene in it than regular american black coffee cuz it amounted to about 1/4 of a cup but i'm soooooo shakey right now! crazy!

i had lunch with almost all of the english teachers today. one of them treated us to yenal bodibap. old style bibimbap. it's really good. i had been to that specific restaurant 3 times before. it was really nice to be taken to a restaurant i actually like rather than an octopus soup restaurant or raw fish! yay!

tomorrow is wednesday! humpday! school's almost out! i'm just showing movies wed. and thurs. and then fri. we're off for xmas!!!

jens and i are going to abby and jason's xmas eve and jason will be making a traditional ukrainian dinner because his family has ukrainian ancestors. then xmas morning jens and i will get up, open presents, make some kind of yummy breakfast and then make sweet potato casserole and pumpkin pie to take over to a and j's that afternoon. we're having a big xmas dinner with them and some other friends. should be great! we'll eat, play games, maybe watch an xmas movie and have a generally merry time! i'm so glad i've got great friends here i can spend the holidays with! last christmas in korea!

after that a and j just have a few days before they leave korea forever! they will be missed but we'll be visiting them on our huge road trip next spring! yay!

we leave jan. 3rd for our vacation! can't wait! jens and i have been planning the itinerary and booking bungalows, etc. SO EXCITED!!!!

i'm super relieved to finally have dog-sitters for the entire winter. thanks so much to all of you who are helping us out!

man it's almost 5:30 and my co-t is supposed to be here to take me to dinner before the concert starts at 6:30!!! i have a feeling we'll be late...dangit! i knew this would happen. she had to go all the way to gwangju earlier today for some reason and then was going to come back and get me for the concert. i should have just gone home for dinner and had her pick me up later. oh well!

anyway, there's a couple i'm in touch with that might be taking over for jens and i after we leave. i just sent them an email with a ton of info about our jobs, etc. but haven't heard back yet. we don't have to fill our jobs before we leave or anything. just kind of nice to already be in touch with our replacements (if they decide to replace us). this way they have time to decide if they wanna buy any of the furniture, etc. we're selling that does not belong to the schools.

ugh i'm so glad i only have movie classes left. the students have been driving me nuts! esp. the boys! but the girls too...they're just really inconsiderate. they steal stuff, they scream and yell, the boys have taekwondo matches in the middle of the room, they lose my craft supplies and won't look for them, they leave paper all over the place, they have races with the rolling chairs, they break chairs, they draw giant penises for x-mas ornaments, they talk back, they ignore me, they watch movies on mini flat screens during class, and just generally act like complete jerks!

i so don't wanna teach at all next semester. i'm worried about what the new 1st graders will be like....but i'm almost more worried about what the old 1st graders turned 2nd graders will be like because they're horrible right now. i don't think a vacation will change them into completely different people lol

i'll have a new main co-teacher next semester though. that'll be A HUGE change! it'll be like a completely different job! my other co-ts will change up a bit too. one of my favorite co-ts wants to transfer schools because the students are so bad but she don't know if she will be able to. it's not her time yet. teachers are supposed to stay at one school for 4 years. she's been here 3.

aaahhh where is my co-t??? i'm soooo hyper!!!!! lol

wonder what we're gonna eat for dinner...we're gonna have to scarf it down whatever it is...she likes noodle soups and deadly spicy stuff. i prefer the noodle soups lol they take a long time for me to eat though because it's hard to eat noodles with chopsticks and a spoon.

i'm beginning to wonder if i'm gonna be locked in this school all night! i'm like the only one here! it's getting dark out.

alright well i'm gonna go in case she gets here and i have to fly out the door!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

SNOW!

so it started snowing last night and has been continuing to snow off and on since then. i woke up to a winter wonderland! :o)

it was really cool at school today because we were making xmas ornaments in my classes and listening to xmas music but on top of all that it kept snowing like crazy and it just felt so wintry! it was awesome! :o) a couple time i looked out the window and could only see WHITE it was snowing so hard. never seen so much snow in my life!

and i swear my cold tolerance has totally changed since i've lived here! of course, i also have a really good coat this year! but even in the snow i don't feel that cold! it's nice! but i'm afraid i'll just be dying during this next summer in texas! ah! lol

anyway, the classes went pretty well. i have to watch the students like a hawk though so they don't steal my supplies! one girl even went over and took a snowflake sequin off of someone else's ornament that was on the tree so she could use it! the little bugger! teaching high school students makes me lose faith in humanity!!! lol

anyway, i had the big talk about vacation yesterday and i think we've come to the agreement with our schools that we'll just not come in to work all winter but also not get paid (other than the 26 days of paid vacation we're allotted in our contract). it sucks but it's better than changing our vacation plans!

we thought we had our dog-sitters squared away for the winter but turns out one girl had an allergic reaction to them after the playdate they had :o( so we're back to looking for someone for the 2nd half of feb.! we've got 2 weeks to find someone!

jens's band's concert is tonight in hadang (other side of town) and i tried to convince him to stay home with me because of the snowy, icy weather but he was determined to go! i thought about going but after my journey home after school i gave up on the idea. it's just too crazy out there. i really hope jens makes it to the other side of town ok!!!!

tomorrow they're supposed to play again at the xmas party up at that same bar but again- it's supposed to be snowy and icy so i dunno if we should go.

sunday i want to make a bunch of xmas cookies for my school. hoping i can get them all done that day.

then i'll just have one week and two days of school left! it's drawing to a close!!! woohoo!

i'm knitting a scarf for jens and have been since sept. i think lol it's taking forever! of course i don't knit everyday like i should. it's getting there though. i think next time i need to start it in june lol

ok well both the dogs want to cuddle in my lap so i'm gonna go snuggle up on the couch with them and watch tv. happy snow day everyone!

almost xmas time!

whew! this day flew by! i had the day off because the students would be taking high school entrance exams (now that i think about that it doesn't make sense lol ...well, anyway they were taking some kind of test and i didn't have to be there!) so that was nice.

i got up, had breakfast, did stuff on the internet and then i realized it was almost 12pm! so i did the mountain of dishes we had lying on the counter, took a shower and then started in on stuffing envelopes with our christmas letter and addressing them. it took forever! i'm still not done. i had to stop at 2:45pm to take the dogs to the vet to be groomed.

it's always funny walking down the street with two dogs- especially since they look so similar and usually walk side-by-side all cute :o) it's especially noticeable in korea since most people either don't have dogs or don't walk them outside. anyway, i told the vet the dogs might be staying with him for a few days this winter in between friends of ours who will be watching them and i let him know we'll need a certificate of health for the two dogs when we take them back to the states with us.

i keep wondering what the dogs will think when we get to the states!

anyway, after dropping off the dogs i went and mailed the letters that i had finished so far. it was only 11,000won so that wasn't too bad. i don't remember how many letters it was but it was quite a few- maybe 20!

at this point i hadn't eaten lunch so i went into paris baguette and got this cream cheese croissant thing that was pretty good. then i grabbed some potatoes at yeonsan mart for dinner tomorrow night.

the weather was really nice today which surprised me because the forecast was snow. it was pretty sunny and not too cold- either this texan has really adjusted to cold weather or it just really wasn't that cold lol

it was nice walking around that area- it's around where we used to live and there's this long outdoor market along the street. it's quite small but nice. we used to walk our dogs through there and everyone would ooh and aah lol

i walked back home and felt glad i had gotten out in the sunny weather for a bit.

back at home i started putting together the presents for my teachers. i got coffee mugs, mini candy canes and a small xmas ornament for all of my co-teachers, the 2nd grade staff room teachers (because my main co-t is a 2nd grade homeroom teacher and i have a desk in their office), for my english lab officemate and for the teacher's english class teachers'. all in all it's 19 mugs. plus i got a cute gift for the japanese teacher i befriended this year. after getting those ready i started assembling the goodie bags for my english club students. it's 10 students and i got them cute socks, noisemakers, firecrackers, erasers, xmas stickers and candy. it's pretty cutesy but high school students here seem to like cute stuff more than ones back home. i think they'll like it. if anything they'll appreciate the candy :o)

i took a break to go pick up the dogs from the vet. they're still cute but i like them more with longer hair. we needed to get them shaved because we're about to hand them off to dog-sitters for a long time and their hair would get really gross after a while.

at 8pm i took a break from wrapping presents to eat dinner. i just made a couple quick veggie fajitas and ate while i watched canada's next top model. i was watching season 1 and i was really disappointed to find out that no episodes past 8 are on youtube :o( so i just started the next season.

after dinner i wrote aaaaaallll the xmas cards for the teachers and by 10pm i was finally done! lol that took way longer than i expected lol

on another note- i found a bunch of pictures i thought i had lost forever!!!! way back in august i off loaded pics from ben and viv's visit to jens's computer really quickly and when it was done i just grabbed my camera and left. later i went back to find the pictures and they were nowhere to be found. jens searched his computer too and he couldn't find them. i was so devastated! it was all the pics from our trip to seoul with ben and viv and then some. i had totally written it off until today when i off loaded more pics from my camera to jens's computer and then couldn't find them. this time i knew the exact name i had tagged the photos as and was able to search for them and find them. turns out they were in the same place as my long lost photos! windows photo gallery! duh! lol i dunno why jens couldn't find them before lol anyway, i've got them and i should be adding them to facebook soon. so that was a nice surprise today :o)

it's back to the grind tomorrow. i'll be handing out all my gifts. (i already gave the principal and vp their gifts on tues. ) i'm gonna feel like santa! lol i'm hoping it goes a long way to persuade the p and vp that they should let me take the vacation i planned on. all the foreigners are having a really hard time with this vacation nonsense. the education office is basically totally changing everything at the last minute and making a lot of people very angry. it sucks. jens and i are gonna stand our ground and hope we get what we want but if it comes down to it we're just gonna quit. it's not worth it to stay. we have a great vacation planned that we've been wanting to take for years, the tickets are booked, it's pointless to hang out at our schools all winter doing nothing and i think it's just wrong of the educ. office to change everything on the foreigners at the last min. so that's that! we'll see what happens. i have a feeling my co-t will bring i up tomorrow.

anyway, i should get to bed. it's 11pm. i've managed to update a couple days in a row now so maybe i can continue the trend. i stopped updating for a long time because i just got really busy and i've lived here so long i feel like i don't have anything extraordinary to write about anymore. i'm so used to living in korea now lol but even the mundane might be interesting to someone. so we'll see.

ok goodnight!
ps- IT'S SNOWING! ^^

feeling creative

man i feel so creative right now! i want to decorate a house or plan a big event! wish i was back home so i could do both! can't wait to organize and decorate our little bungalow we'll be living in on my parents' land :o) and i want to plan lots of nice outdoor events in the BIG backyard like bbqs and fiestas, etc. aaaah it'll be so fun!

i've been looking at lots of home decor sites and party planning sites and getting lots of ideas.

i really hope i can become a wedding planning assistant or something like that when i get back home. i think i'd really enjoy it and be good at it. just hope the economy will provide those kinds of jobs!

i also hope jens can get into firefighting easily and i hope he likes it. it'd be a really good stable job. as much as i want to be a wedding planner i know it's not a very stable job :o/ it'll be great if i become successful at it but i'm being realistic. there's always the eco-friendly field! i'd love to do anything in that field so that opens up a lot more opportunities. it's hard to say exactly what job i would do - there's such a variety - but there are a lot of things i think i would enjoy doing within that field. anything related to food, farming, retail, recycling, education. if i do get into that field i think it'll take some research and experience to figure out exactly what i wanna do within it.

anyway yeah i just have all this creative energy and no outlet for it right now. i can't really do any major decorating and there are no more events to plan this year...guess i'll just stick to looking at stuff online and getting ideas for the future :o)

goodnight!

it's december!

another year almost over! crazy!

thanksgiving went pretty well! it took FOREVER to cook that turkey though! i didn't factor in the fact that i was brining the turkey and that makes it have to cook longer and i also didn't factor in how long it would take to prepare the turkey before putting it in the oven and then all the time basting would take up. it took 7 hours all in all! people were starving by the time we ate lol good thing we had appetizers though. we had hummus and crackers, homemade wheat bread, fruit and drinks.

the turkey turned out WONDERFULLY though! i was so happy :o) it was beautiful and i of course took pictures which i hope to put on facebook soon :o) with the turkey we had stuffing, sweet potato casserole, broccoli cheese casserole, green bean casserole, copper penny carrots and we were going to have this cranberry jello stuff jens's nana always makes but i forgot it in the fridge lol with the excitement of the food finally being done i totally forgot about it lol

everyone loved the food though so that was good :o)

a few days later we decorated for xmas :o) the tree was up a good two weeks before i knocked it over and broke an ornament lol it's in a new location now. the problem is the stand broke our first year so we have to put it in this ceramic vase meant for a plant and it's not very stable. it's our last year using it though so that's good lol next year we'll probably use the 3 foot tree i've used since high school. i don't think we'll have room in the bungalow for a big one. we'll have to wait til we have a house for that. but that's ok.

the first weekend in december i was supposed to go out to the island where the heaslips live with some girlfriends for amanda's baby shower/girls night but there were high winds and all the ferries were canceled :o/ so that sucked. don't know if we're going to be able to reschedule.

dec. 8th was anneke's 100 day dinner! abby and jason took us and some other friends out for beef galbi at bear garden and it was awesome! really good food :o) anneke looked adorable in her little yellow princess dress :o) so cute!

the past two weeks at school have been self-study week and finals week so that was easy. no real classes. i had to supervise 3 final exams each day for 4 days last week and that was pretty nerve-wracking (because it's so boring) but i got through it fairly unscathed lol went to lunch with the 2nd grade teachers the first day of exams- octopus soup! :oP the second day the teacher's english class students took my co-t and i out to dinner at this nice beef galbi place way out in muan (about an hour away) but it was really, really good! the 3rd day i ate the nurse's leftover lunch with her and my co-t...it was ok...lol old rice with black beans in it, dried seaweed, kimchi, mystery vegetables...oh and my co-t order laboki which is a mix of ramen and ddeokpoki; noodles, rice cakes, cabbage, onions, carrots in a really spicy red sauce. i could barely eat it it was so spicy lol by friday i welcomed the school's lunch lol it was just noodle soup with rice balls that had corn and seaweed in them, other veggies...and strawberry milk.

so those were my lunches for the week lol

today is the day of our christmas party! starts 5pm. i'm bringing wassail, cream cheese roll-ups and salsa. jens and i are gonna play two songs on guitar and flute and i brought the lyrics to some xmas songs all the guests can sing together. hopefully it'll be a good night :o)

next week at school i'm starting the 2.5 weeks of watching movies and making xmas ornaments out of paper. should be fun. hope it flies by :o) i'm ready for xmas and vacation!

the a.s. concert is still on for fri. the 18th, then moe's xmas party and a.s. acoustic show on the 19th.

we'll be spending christmas eve and day with the sauchuks and a few other friends which will be nice :o)

we're getting closer and closer to the end! arguments about vacation will be coming soon lol just part of working in korea. every dec. we have to spend days arguing about the vacation time we want. it's not pleasant. i'm hoping it's easier this year than in past years. not sure though because the seoul national education dept. (or whatever it's called) has decided that they want to do the same thing with all the native english teachers in all of korea and they think all of us should literally "desk-warm" this winter when we're not on our alloted 26 days of vacation that are in our contract. in the past only a few teachers have had to do this because their schools were huge douche-bags. now they want to do it to everyone. i have no idea why they think this is a good idea. having a bunch of people sit at desks all winter doing nothing seems pretty pointless to me. granted we could be making lessons but most of us don't need a month to make some lessons lol plus most korean teachers have the option of working from home. this option will not be afforded to us...don't know why. it's all very weird and last minute- just like everything else in korea. but jens and i are going to fight for our vacation and if it really comes down to it we'll just quit. losing my vacation to sit at a desk doing nothing for a month is not worth it to me. especially when they tell us about this last minute and we've already gotten everything booked for this winter.

i don't think it'll come down to us quitting though. we know our schools and we think they'll let us do what we want. it's our last year too so we'll be out of their hair soon and they can tell the new teachers the new policy in advance so they can plan for it (let's hope!) i will certainly be warning the new people about it.

uuumm in other news it hasn't been that cold in korea this winter! it was fairly warm for a while there and only just got cold day before yesterday or so and it's still not as cold as it's been in past years. global warming i guess. either that or i've REALLY gotten used to the cold lol i know the first time i go through a texan summer agian i'll be dying lol i miss it though :o) blacktops liquifying and not being able to touch your seatbelt in the car without getting 3rd degree burns lol good ol' texas! :o)

ok i'm gonna go. MERRY CHRISTMAS!

long time no update

i wrote this like a week ago or so but i'm just now posting it:

long time no write. i don't write as much as i used to because blogspot is always blocked at korean schools and i don't have much time outside of work. i've been trying to stay busy so i can get through the rest of my contract here in korea.

first of all - i've said it before and i'll say it again, i do not regret coming to korea one bit. sometimes i wish i had only stayed 2 years instead of 3 but that would have meant that we wouldn't have saved more money, we wouldn't have gone to japan a second time, we wouldn't be going to se asia this winter and we wouldn't have had all the fun times that we've had with our friends here. plus i might not have realized just how much i don't want to be a teacher or how much i'd like to be an event/wedding planner :o) so it's good we stayed a 3rd year.

i've experienced so much while living in korea i wouldn't change it for the world.

but...i'm ready to leave lol it's time! teaching has been driving me absolutely bonkers. what i can't stand is when i tell a students to do something like 100 times and they still act like they've never heard of what i'm talking about before. such as, bringing a pencil to class. it's quite simple- this is school, you need a pen or pencil! lol it's not rocket science. yet everyday i have to send students back to their classes to get a pencil and they act all put out. another thing is when i am standing at the front trying to explain the lesson and i know not everyone is listening. some of them are even talking over me. i can get them all quiet at the same time for about a nanosecond. so i say each directions at least 2-3 times and then it turn to my co-t who then explains everything in korean because they didn't listen to me. and then! i go around to see if the students need any help and about half of them are sitting there doing nothing. i say- why don't you start? and they're like what? how? i don't know! and i'm like...you've got to be kidding me. we just spent 15 mins. explaining this to you in english AND korean with visuals and you just flat out didn't pay attention at all. i don't have time to go around and explain everything to each individual student. i can't hold all their hands through everything ya know?

and it just comes down to them being lazy smartelics. they literally never want to do anything ever at all period. so what do i do with that? how do i do my job exactly? the answer is: i can't. i can stand up there and babble all i want but it's not gonna change a thing. the students are overworked and they have no respect for teachers. i blame the teachers and the parents. the parents work so much because they think everyone in korea MUST be rich or you should just kill yourself. so the parents aren't there for the kids. they have them stay at school or a private academy day in and day out for hours and hours at a time. my high school students are at school from 7am to 10pm everyday. i think they get to leave at 6pm on sat. woohoo. so my job is basically impossible. i'm getting paid to go through the motions. most students are probably not learning much. some of them may find my lesson interesting at the time but they won't remember any of the info later. it's ridiculous. so i've gotten to the point where i don't care anymore. i just have to churn out a lesson and get through my time here. sad but true.

my main co-teacher is still driving me insane. as soon as i start to feel for her and maybe even kinda like her she'll do something else completely insane/rude/clueless and i'm back to wanting to avoid her. again, sad but true.

some of my other co-teachers are cool. one of them is married and has a one year old son and she invited me over to her house for dinner one night. her husband had to work late and she doesn't like eating dinner alone, or cooking lol so i picked up some food and took it over there and cooked it. her apt. was SO NICE! i had never been in a korean's apt. before (believe it or not, after almost 3 years of living here...koreans just don't invite people to their houses much). well i take that back, i had been to ONE single korean guy's apt. once which was fun and interesting but going to a married couple's house is different. they have more money and bigger places lol she had a HUGE kitchen! it had a 4-burner stove, a normal built-in oven AND a dishwasher! none of a which a foreigner's apt. ever has. which i of course understand. the city/schools aren't going to pay for foriegners to have nice apts. with all the amenities. it was just so shocking to see a normal apt. in korea for the first time. lol i made moroccan veggies with couscous and she liked it. her one year old boy is so adorable! he has really chubby cheeks :o) after dinner we just hung out, talked, watched tv and the baby. it was fun :o)

anyway, here's what else i've been up to: we had a huge halloween party here in mokpo at p club. proceeds went to the local orphanage. jens and i dressed up as bond and a bond girl, honey thighs rushing lol at the party there was a bake sale, jack-o-lantern contest. costume contest, a dungeon, tarot cards readings (by jens lol he doesn't actually know how to read them but he made up funny stuff :o) there were drinks and dancing and lots of fun had! it was a great time!

we had a picnic on yudal with some friends one day. it was the last really nice day of the year. quite warm and sunny :o)

we've been riding bikes/taking the bus to and from school since we lost our scooter. i'm still pretty depressed about losing the scooter but biking and busing hasn't been too bad. i haven't biked in a while because it got cold but the buses are really warm.

jens got some guys together to form a band. they call themselves the amazing sex lol they had a concert on the 21st at a bar called moe's. it's owned by a canadian/korn couple (i think he's canadian...might be american). anyway, the show went pretty well. the sound system wasn't very good but it was still fun :o)

jens has also gotten some guys together to play dungeons and dragons once a week.

i had a betting pool going with some girls for american's next top model. we all put money in and bet on the girl we thought would win. if you picked the winner you got the money! we've done it 3 times now. it's pretty fun. i one the first time but not this time. we just watched the finale last weekend.

this weekend jens and i are hosting thanksgiving and we're making all the food! we got a turkey and everything! it'll be the first time we've ever done this - the first time to host it at our place, make all the food and make a turkey. hope it all goes well! abby and jason are gonna help us sat. so that'll be good :o) about 15 people will be joining us sunday for a late thanksgiving lunch :o) i can't wait! i love t-day food and festivities :o)

a couple days after that we'll decorate for christmas which i also love! it'll finally be ok to listen to xmas music ALL THE TIME! yaaaaaaaaay! lol i think the christmas season will really help me get through dec. without losing my mind lol i'm just really homesick and tired of teaching.

but we've got a lot going on in dec. every weekend and then some is already booked! the first weekend i'll be going to my friend amanda's baby shower/ girls night out on this island where she and her family lives and that should be fun. it'll be nice to get out of mokpo. we pretty much haven't gone anywhere since the scooter was stolen.

then dec. 8th is abby's baby's 100 day party (they have those parties for babies in korea because back in the day it was a real feat for a kid to make it to 100 days.) 2nd weekend we'll be having a big xmas party with two of our friends at their apt. we want to re-create jens's parents xmas party they have every year with lots of food, music, a mini talent show and christmas caroling. funfunfun! i can't wait! i think it's gonna be great! then the next fri. amazing sex will be performing an electric show at moe's and the next night on sat. they'll do an acoustic show at moe's costume christmas party. i dunno what costume i'm going to wear yet...can't think about that now lol then of course the last weekend in dec. is christmas! and thank goodness it's on a friday this year so we get a 3-day weekend. korean teachers/students only get xmas day off of work and that's it!

i dunno what our new year's plans are yet. two of our best friends here (abby and jason) are leaving dec. 30th so we can't spend it with them :o( but i think some of our other friends might be around so i'm sure we'll be able to celebrate with with someone. the reason we have to stay in mokpo is because jens might have a winter camp. we're not totally sure because they might cancel it due to swine flu. but all the kids at his school recently got the vaccine so they may have it afterall.

after that we'll be on vacation! i can't wait! it's gonna be so awesome! we're going to laos, cambodia, thailand, malaysia and singapore! :o) won't be back til end of feb. still in the process of confirming dog-sitters but i think it'll work out!

anyway, i'm tired of typing so i'm gonna go now!