Christmas and The New Year

so the last time i wrote i was waiting for my co-t to come pick me up to go to the school concert. she finally showed and yes, i was the last one to leave the school! it was pitch dark and really spooky! then we had a weird dinner at this place across from the concert hall and showed up late to the concert. it was basically a bunch of teenagers dancing inappropriately for old men lol the highlight was the orchestral rendition of nobody while 5 teen girls danced in front...very, very weird but very korean!

christmas great!!! we spent xmas eve at the sauchuks' and jason made a traditional ukrainian feast because his ancestors are from the ukraine- it was DELICIOUS!!!! smoked salmon, perogies, rice and cabbage, etc. we hungout until late into the night and then went home.

xmas morning jens and i opened our presents with the dogs before going over to the sauchuks' again for breakfast. jens gave me two funny sweaters- one of which said "bitches betta have my money" inside of cute monster mouths lol he also got me some good wine, chocolate a couple books i want to read over vacation :o) i got home some sparkly korean ties, a book and candy. we didn't buy much this year because our se asia trip is basically a huge gift to ourselves :o) plus we're leaving korea in 4 months so we don't need more stuff to have to bring home.

at the sauchuks' we ate abby's rendition of eggs benedict- toast, ham, bacon, poached eggs and cheeeeese sauce! so good but sooo filling! after that we hung out with them while they and our other friends (chris, ji yeon, chris snell, shanna and joe) opened their presents.

after that we came home and made some food to take over there that night. we went back over around dinner time and had a huge christmas feast of chicken, stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, carrots, green beans, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie! it was wonderful! we hung out til late again and then headed home.

i had two more days of school but i caught a cold on xmas day and felt horrible monday morning :oP it was like the worst day of the cold and as much as i didn't wanna call in i felt too bad to even get out of bed. i just slept most of the day and tried to get better. i still have the cold but it hasn't been too bad since then.

i went to school the last day but didn't have class. my co-t had to do a bunch of paperwork with me for my vacation and it was HORRIBLE! i won't go into it but she made me want to pull my hair out. it just made me appreciate my 2 month vacation EVEN MORE! lol

after i got out of school jens had an english camp at his school for 4 days 9a-12p each day but it wasn't too bad.

i started packing up summer clothes i wanna send home on the 3 month shipping so it'll get there before i do but also because we won't have room for everything in our suitcases when it comes time to leave. you definitely accumulate quite a bit when you live in one spot for 3 years! lol

dec. 30th was the sauchuk family's last night in korea!!!! a bunch of us went out to eat with them at this all you can eat meat place- it was soooo goooood! then we went back to their apt. and helped them pack up all the last min. stuff and get it into the van in which our friends were driving them to the airport. once we were all done we popped the cork in the a bottle of champagne they had gotten for xmas and had a toast! it was really sad to see them go but i didn't cry because i know exactly when i'll see them next! it'll be next may when we're on our big road trip :o) so i'm happy about that!

new year's eve was low-key but fun! it was actually my first n.y.e. in mokpo! my first year we went to seoul, 2nd year we were home. so this was the first one in city i've been living in for so long lol jens and i got dressed up and went to kraze burger!!!! i'm so excited we finally have one but it kind sucks it came near the end of our time here :oP i would have been eating there ALL the time if it had come sooner lol

it snowed again which was fun but annoying at the same time- it's still surreal living in a place that gets so much more snow than texas, but it was freeezing and really hard to walk in around hadang lol

we ate and then walked over to yoger presso and had coffee and waffles- i got a chocolate covered one and jens got a blueberry jam one.

then we headed to moe's bar. there weren't many people there at first but it filled up more as the night went out. we just hung out and talked to our friends at the beginning but near the end of the night we met 3 new people- a couple working at one of the universities that have been here 2 weeks and a guy who works at a hagweon and has only been here a couple months. they all seemed really cool though so we may hang out with them a bit in march and april. some people don't like to make new friends near the end of the contract but i say what the hell? :o)

at midnight we all took b-52 shots and it was actually my first shot ever! at 26 years old! lol i just never saw the point in them- you pay so much for one gulp! lol but it WAS good :o) so i may give more of them a try in the future!

first song i heard in 2010 was bohemian rhapsody lol do idea why they played that and not auld lang syne or something lol but it was funny- then it was lady gaga just dance which was fun. we danced and chatted with people for a couple hours and then went home.

today we had some friends over to have black-eyed peas for good luck. jens made them and they were AWESOME! so good! we even made them vegetarian for one of our friends (who didn't actually show up unfortunately) and they were still reeeeally good! :o)

after that we took a nap, got up and starting packing for our se asia trip!!!! i'm SO excited!

we'll be in mokpo all day tomorrow and at 2am we'll take a bus to the aiport in seoul. should take about 5 hours. since we're leaving a snowy climate and going to a tropical one that makes things kinda tricky lol i'm gonna have to wear like leggings, a dress, 3 tops, socks and sandals lol it's really impractical to wear our winter coats up there and take them to se asia. there's no way we'd wanna carry them around 5 countries for 2 months lol so we have to tough out the cold til we get to the aiport. we just have to jump in a taxi to the bus station, then jump on a warm bus and run straight into the airport when we get there so it shouldn't be too bad.

first stop- kuala lumpur, malaysia! we'll spend the day there and then take an overnight train to a town near the island of langkawi. then we just take a boat over to the island. we're staying there at least 5 days i think. it's gonna be AWESOME! sun, sand and waves baby!!! i'm so ready for it! from there we're going to singapore which i'm really excited about! it's the most expensive place in se asia so we can't stay long but the food sounds amazing! it's really diverse so they have indian, chinese, malay, etc. YUM! can't wait!

i won't go into the trip any more than that. i'm hoping to update this journal all along the way. i've never done that before so i dunno how it'll work out- it depends on the internet connection and how much it costs to use it, etc. we'll see.

until next time! HAPPY NEW YEAR! MAKE 2010 GREAT!