Remember those "tickets?"

It was 9 am.  My co-worker came in to my classroom and sat down as she often did to have a chat first thing in the morning, but this morning a worried expression was inked onto her pretty Irish face.
"Who was that travel agent you told me you used?" she asked
"Zenith tours" I replied
"I just read an article... it said that he's had a lot of complaints lately."
"Hmmm..."
"You might just want to call the airlines to make sure your flight reservations weren't canceled."
"I'm not too worried.  Kate and Shelly are in Thailand right now using his flights and Jacob is currently flying using tickets he purchased from him as well.  Jacob has used this guy for years and never had problems.  I'm not too worried"
She nodded.
"Those tickets"

I did call the airlines though.  I mostly had just said those things to reassure myself.  My heart had been beating like a bird flying rashly into a clear window pane over and over again.

Our tickets were through several different airlines.  It took us a few days to get a hold of  all the airlines, but once we did that bird within my chest hit the window pane for the last time, and sank to the cold concrete floor stunned, unable to move.  Our travel agent, to whom we had sent over $3000, had not yet paid our tickets. He'd made reservations, but he hadn't paid the airlines.

We emailed, we called... no answer

The next day, Kyle came to my classroom. Its rare that Kyle comes to my classroom.  My heart which had not taken the events well shuddered at the site of him. Not because I don't like seeing my husband during the day, but because I knew he was there because something had happened.

"He's in jail." Kyle told me
"What!" I exclaimed
"They've arrested him.  He's in jail."

He's out of jail now on the condition that he keeps in touch with the law, and liquidates his assets to pay the 40 something customers he cheated.

Kyle filed a police report, and entered a class law suit, but currently the police think that he's skipped town because he hasn't responded and they haven't been able to find him.

So Kyle and began the search for our tickets again.  We are hopeful that EVENTUALLY we will be refunded, but there are concerns.  By the time the law suit is over, we will not be in Korea which will make things difficult.  And, the guy owes hundreds of thousands of dollars.... he convinced the judge that his real estate was worth what he owed...I don't know if it is...  So only time shall tell...

If we don't get it back, its a lot of money that we're out, but in the end, we have each other, we have our friends and family and really that's whats important in life.

I'm a yogini

"Can you teach yoga?" my manager asked me one day.

"uhhh," I stuttered

"I want the kids to learn yoga, and the president wont pay for a yoga instructor." she said

"I guess." I acquiesced.

I actually do yoga videos about once a week along with my other work outs.  So I'm quite familiar with the moves.  But I started looking up kids yoga, and its quite different to the calm and peaceful yoga that is ususally taught to kids.  Basically, all of the moves are active rather than static, and many of the positions are given animal names.  I also have the kids make the nosies of the animals as they follow along. They LOVE yoga because basically, they love pretending to be animals.  Its very cute.

Happy Peperro Day

Otherwise known as November 11.  There are folks in the states that complain loudly about holidays being taken over by commercialism, but seriously, its nothing in comparison to Korea's National Holiday of Peperro Day.  This "holiday" is celebrated every year on 11/11 by the giving of these chocolate covered sticks to friends, romantic partners, and teachers.  The claim is that Peperro sticks resemble the number one, so the holiday makes sense.  Seriously- its just an excuse for another company to sell something, and a specific brand at that.

But this year is even MORE special- because not only is it November 11, but the year is 2011 giving advertisers a new gimmick- "once in a thousand years" Millennium Peperro day.

Watch the peperro video here.
According to my Korean co-worker here are some statistics from this years peperro holiday.

500,000,000won= $500,000 for t.v. advertisement for November.
850,000,000won = $850,000 profit for whole year
70,000,000won= $70,000 higher profit than last year

Here are the candies that came our way this year.  Now all of this was not for me alone, but for our studnets and co-teacher as well.  But that's a lot of candy for our class of 9.
 

Another similar holiday in Korea is Chupa chups day on September 9.  This also makes "sense" because the candy resemble the number 9. Bouquet of these suckers are often given to friends and romantic partners.



This year, I didn't receive any of these suckers because we were all on vacation....

Pre-school clips

A while a go our preschool was videoed for an advertisement for the website. This is that preschool video.  It's adorable.  The first class is mine.  I'm super proud of my kids, but not of my hair in this video.  Don't look at it!  Hope you enjoy!

Operation Cheesy Romance

There are some who might say I'm not a very good planner. Evidence certainly supports that assessment however as of a few weeks ago, that table is beginning to turn! Sept. 2nd marked the big 5 year for us and I wanted our celebratory date to be especially special this year. I think I pulled it off.

I spent almost all of August trying to come up with something, and let me tell you, it ain't easy in a foreign country. I knew of a very romantic restaurant that I had been to once before that was right on the river, not too far from where we live that had excellent duck. When I asked around about where it was however, no one seemed to know. Frustrating. So then I realized, I don't need to get fancy, just creative. Here's how it went; 

First I told Vanessa that I would be taking her out on a date Thursday night and that I had arranged to have our friend drive us there. I had a lot of secret planning and cooking to do though so I also crafted up a cover story that our International school Kapa would be shooting a commercial that evening and that I had been asked to help. I was going to help them as much as I could and then come home around 7:30 to get ready for our date at 8. 

I let some of my coworkers in on the plan about a week in advance so that I could enlist their help, so at 6:30 we met at the designated rendezvous and got to work. The menu for the evening was Filet Mignon with a home made mushroom, onion and redwine burgundy sauce. I whipped up some garlic mashed potatoes on the side and a stir fried Jambolaya/ dirty rice dish I winged a bit with coconut lime shrimp. I found an excellent wine from Montepulciano, not far from where we studied abroad in Italy and desert was "homemade heheh" brownies with strawberries and dark chocolate truffle shavings smothered in chocolate sauce. It took me about an hour and a half to get everything cooked up and ready and even then, if it wasn't for Sam Cooper and Kelly Middleton, I never would have finished in time! You guys were life savers! 

So while I was cooking away, I had our friends Linda and the Irish Gals help arrange the setting. Our village has a beautiful mini outdoor theater that now has a giant chess board in the middle of it with a huge white tent covering it on the top of a hill that overlooks our village.  Earlier in the day I had a few of the guys help me string up some Christmas lights and put a table and chairs in the middle of the giant chess pieces. Our buddy Mark had a brilliant idea and took the heater off his bathroom wall and stuck in under the table. Perfect touch! The girls then arranged about a hundred tea cup candles all over the tent and string up some lanterns. To put the finishing touches on, they even decorated the table with a beautiful centerpiece that rounded the whole thing off. Nice touch girls! Half the damn candles blew out but what can ya do and it was still incredibly beautiful. 

So I rushed back to the apartment at 7:30ish and told Van that I had pushed the reservations back to 8:15 and that Jay, our chauffeur, would be picking us up at 8. I quickly shaved off my scruffy beard and threw on a nice shirt and pants and we loaded up into our "limo." Jay took us around the village and up the hill, to our "fancy restaurant that came highly recommended." The place looked fantastic! Van was very surprised indeed. 

I had also arranged to have a few of the high school students from Kapa there to play some super cheesy romance music for us. They were perfect! Beauty and the Beast, Moon River and a beautiful guitar solo that I didn't recognize but was excellently done. Sam Cooper, I mean "Pierre" was our waiter for the evening and was hands down the best waiter we have ever had, except for that fact that he kept making passes at my wife. Sigh, the French. Anyways, the cheese and olive apertif plate was beautifully arranged in a flower shape and the wine was eloquently served. And if we needed anything we just needed to call. What more can you possibly ask for in a restaurant? 

To top it all of, we had an excellently executed fireworks display that added just the right amount of over the topness to make the evening one for the record books. V says it was the most romantic thing I've ever done and all the guys in the Village now hate me for raising the bar so high. I hate to gloat but I'm quite proud of myself for pulling this one off, even if it was 5 years and 1 month over due! 

A special thanks goes out to Linda, Lisa, Helena, D, Mark, Sean, Jovan and especially Kelly and Sam. You guys were awesome and I couldn't have pulled it off without yall! 

Scary movie marathon

I love Halloween.  I wouldn't go so far as to say its my favorite holiday, but there is a lot I love about it.  I love dressing up, I love the candy, carving jack-o-lanterns, dressing up, and the general spirit of scaring each other for fun. I love the tradition of trick-o-treating, that for one night a week, neighborhoods open to their doors to complete strangers and give to one another.  I love the community spirit of it all.

This year, Kyle and I were lazy.  We didn't organize anything. Last year we had a Halloween party, but I couldn't bring myself to plan it this year.  Our laziness spread so deep Halloween weekend, that I'm almost embarrassed to tell you what I'd planed on writing about; our Halloween movie marathon. Yes, it was a marathon.  Its not the scary movies that I'm embarrassed about, maybe some of them I should be, but rather the AMOUNT of movies we watched in 48 hours. 

We watched 6 movies.  Four on Saturday, two on Sunday.  Our butt imprints are permanently ingrained on our couch. We hardly moved all weekend.  We were sloths. We got up long enough to make a meal, go to the bathroom, but I'm not sure I left the apartment. And whats worse- is that I LOVED IT! Whats wrong with me.  Where did this lazy gene come from?

 Hocus Pocus- Its a classic. It's funny, entertaining, and just plain FUN to watch! It came out 18 years ago, and its still fantastic.

 From Dusk till Dawn- I'm not going to give anything away.  But I will say that half way through the movie all of sudden the genre changes.  Its animatronics remind me of Indiana Jones, which make it kinda funny in parts it might not meant to be funny, but I liked it overall.

 Severance- A british "comedy." They have a sick sense of what a "comedy" is.  It was good, it had humorous moments, but by no means would I call this a COMEDY. It was a slasher/horror.  Not too much of a slasher, but there was some definite slashing.   I liked it.















Tucker and Dale vs. Evil- HILARIOUS!! SEE IT! Really, SOOO FUNNY!
Three Extremes- Weird. Asian movies are WEIRD and DISTURBING.  Seriously, I'm concerned for their cultures.  Every horror movie from the Asian continent I've ever seen has just been seriously disturbing.  This one is actually three short movies all together.  In fact, the first one takes place in China, the second in Korea, and the third in Japan (I think). The directors are all experts and well respected in their fields. Watch it if you like being disturbed.

The Mist- better than I expected.  It wasn't one where you jumped or screamed a lot. But I thought the story was good, new and interesting.  It definitely has a Stephen King feel to it.

Vampires, Zombies and Ghouls Oh my!

I had fun making my friends here in Korea look like zombies, ghouls and vampires using picnik.com which is a photo editing internet program. There are many free options.  I subscribe so that I have more options. As you can see, I had LOTS of fun ghouling up my friends.

Preparing

A while a go, my husband who LOVES shopping, and also LOVES outdoor gear, put an airsoft gun to my head, and forced me to buy some chacos.  Secretly, I think he just wanted us to have matching shoes. For all of you non-chaco peeps, chacos are a type of outdoor shoe for hiking, getting wet, and pretty much anything else one does outdoors. My chacos are some of the cutest I've ever seen.  Their much girly-er than many of the styles that are typically sold. 

BUT they sometimes give me blisters. I have super sensitive feet though. Its not normal for chacos to give blisters. So I was concerned about having them as my MAIN shoes while traveling.  If I get blisters then I'd pretty much be up a creek barefoot.

So I started looking at other outdoor shoes to compliment my chacos.  And on a random day out and about, I found these: Merrell Hiking shoes. Not only are they ADORABLE outdoor shoes, but they also are closed toe, waterproof, breathable and extremely comfortable. I payed WAY more than I wanted to.  The pain is even more acute and sharp because I paid more than the retail price in the states (because of import tax). I hate buying expensive things, but sometimes you just have to break down.  I almost always look for sales, but I wasn't sure I was going to find a sale before we left for traveling, and its getting cold.  I don't like shopping in the cold. So I just bought them. I'm very happy with them so far, although I haven't gotten to wear them much because fall has abandoned us to the harsh grasp of winter, but every time I slip them on, they feel like walking on clouds.

New toys

The one on the left with the hood is the zoomy lens and the other is the wide angle lens.

This shot, taken hastily in the morning, which has a smudge, is to show you the bulb in the center of the lens.  This is what give is the wide angle.

for those camera people, this is a 28mm-105mm.  3.5f, In the camera world, amongst the pros and Koreans who must have everything top of the line or else they die, it isn't the best, but I think it will suit our purposes.

 We've been preparing for our travels.  Basically, everyday, Kyle and I wake up and say, "do we have to go to work, can't we just go on our travels today?" in the whiniest voice ever.  In the end, we decide to go to work, begrudgingly.

And in preparing for our travels, Kyle and I decided that if we were ever to invest in good lenses, now was the time.  So we made our way to Yongsan, where one goes to buy electronics, and made our planned purchase, a lens with a more enhanced zoom capacity. Its not really a ZOOM lens, but it has a more zoominess than did our previous.

Our camera came with two lenses, the kit lens and a mega zoom lens.  The mega zoom lens couldn't take clear photos without a tripod, and as we only carry a tiny tripod with us, it just didn't ever get any use. We sold both lenses even though the guy laughed at the "poor" quality of my kit lens.


We then however made an impulse buy, one that I so far have no regrets about, a wide angle lens.  I've wanted a wide angle lens for a LONG time. Wide angle lenses are responsible for those AMAZING sky shots that are often seen in magazines. But wide angle lenses are SUPER expensive.  Like $600 and higher sometimes.  But a new lens came out which is much cheaper, and not AS cool, but still pretty cool, and on impulse we bought it. We called a friend quickly to do a price check and a review check previous to making the decision, and in the end, we thought, we couldn't live without.  Or we could, but it would be REALLY fun to have.

So here are some examples of what are new lenses can do:

50 mm is a close up lens, this shot is just meant to give perspective.

Wide angle lens.  Do see how much of the background you can see?

Normal shot

wide angle lens

Normal shot

wide angle lens

I'm so excited to have these new toys!  Hopefully our pictures will reflect this, and everyone can ooohh and awwww over our AMAZING new photos.

Normal lens

zoomier lens

The trouble with public transportation

One of the things I LOVE about Korea is its public transportation. Not only is it pretty efficient, but it's also incredibly cheap.  Its a Godsend to any expat trying to save money. Subways, trains, buses are such a blessing.  Not only do I not pay car insurance, gas or the added expenses when my car breaks down, it helps to cut down on emissions which just happen to be choking our world to death.  Public transportation gets me just about anywhere I want to go and as an added bonus, I don't have to worry about parking.  I wish it were something that Texas would invest in.

But, sadly, its not all smiles and butterflies. Public transportation has its pitfalls as well. For example, I can't get EVERYWHERE I want to go. Exploring unknown territory is pretty much impossible.  We have a friend with a car here at English Village, and a couple of times he's taken us around Yongmun in his car.  We saw areas of Yongmun, we would have NEVER seen if it hadn't been for his car.  I can't just jump in a taxi and say, "just drive, just explore for a while" like you can when you own a car.

Public transportation has limits including it's timetables. The subways in Seoul stop running at 12ish on a Saturday night.  Which doesn't sound too late, but that means that I have to be on a subway by 10:30pm if I want to get home at all on Saturday night, which pretty much puts a damper on going out on the town. ( I live 1 hr and a half from Seoul)

For example, this past weekend, I was going out to dinner with a dear friend for her last weekend before she heads off to Thailand. She was late to dinner, so we were paying the bill at 10:00pm. We had also told some friends that we'd meet them in the foreigner area called Itaewon at a pub.  I didn't want to make it an all-nighter.  I wanted to make it a shorter night in fact, but I also wanted to spend time with my friend who I might never see again. And here in lies the rub. If I choose not to go home by 10:30pm, I cannot go home AT ALL until the morning. Jimjilbangs (bathhouses) provide floor mats to sleep on in communal rooms for under $10 a night which is an option, or a hotel for $40. This past weekend however, I really wanted to sleep in my own bed, so instead of getting a hotel or jimjilbang, I decided to wait up for the first subway at 6am.

Which leads me to my next point about the weakness of public transportation; subways and most buses don't have bathrooms.  Picture if you will three sleep-deprived English teachers curled up on a cold bench waiting for the subway. Kyle, Lisa (our friend/co-worker) and myself  are those characters snoring away. I wake up at 5:52 and realize that I should go to the bathroom before the subway comes.  However, I don't think I'll make it before the it comes.  The bell rings, the subway swishes in and I hesitantly step inside.  My bladder is full and there isn't a bathroom on the subway.  If I get off the subway, I'll have to wait another 40 minutes before the next one comes, and all I really want is my bed.

 Luckily, I fell asleep, but there were moments I was sure I wouldn't make it. I had nightmares about peeing on myself on the subway because I was too stubborn to get off.  I clenched my teeth and willed the pee to remain in my bladder. The cost of peeing was 40 more minutes I wouldn't be in my bed and the price was just too high.

As soon as the subway slid into the station, I yanked off my high heel boots (which I no longer could effectively walk in, only hobble like a distorted walking dead creature) and ran to the bathroom. It was glorious.  I had made it.  But the journey had been incredibly painful.  There are aspects of public transportation I'll miss, but there are definitely others I'll be glad to be rid of.

Did I mention: We've got TICKETS HOME!

A few posts back, I mentioned that Kyle and I have officially purchased our tickets.   And these plane tickets are just direct plane tickets home, OH NO, they have five stops.  And Oh yes, did I get an amazing deal on them.  We're paying just $450 more than a direct flight.  Yippie Yie Yay!!  Seriously, I am a serious scavenger for all things cheap, and we got the motherload on this deal.

So here is the basic Itinerary:

Last work day: Jan. 1

Fly to Bangkok, Thailand- a few days later (after SERIOUS packing) and I mean serious!  Oh dear Lord, I don't want to pack.

We spend THREE MONTHS backpacking Southeast Asia!!  When I was planning this out, I thought, "three months- thats a LONG time."  Now that I'm looking at what we are going to do, I keep thinking- we don't have ENOUGH time.  (I really like the caps locks tonight)
Countries we're going to visit:
Malaysia
Indonesia
Laos
Cambodia
Vietnam
Thailand

But we're not flying home from Bangkok.  Nope, we're going to go visit our friends we've made here in ENGLAND and IRELAND, for two weeks.

And then to NYC to visit Jen. G. my bestest friend!  For a few days.

And then HOME to TEXAS late April, after my birthday. My birthday will be spent in Ireland.  Kyle's birthday in March, we're not sure where we'll be yet.

So heres the run down:
3 months- Southeast Asia
2 weeks- England, Ireland
1 week (roughly) NYC
___________________
4 months of traveling

At least a year, probably more -TEXAS

Who's excited!!??

Halloween video #2

http://sendables.jibjab.com/view/i5jNDKlzZbylotmJ?cmpid=hw_fb_self

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Fun Halloween videos!

I made these two Jibjab Halloween videos for some of our friends here at the Village. Here is the first one...

http://sendables.jibjab.com/view/KVdKZewcwQ4Vag9h?cmpid=hw_fb_self

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Take more pictures

Part of being a teacher at our preschool is being a photographer.  The children need their pictures taken regularly as proof that their being taught.  So on each field trip, I take my camera and dutifully take as many pictures of the kids as I can while still trying to answer their questions, hold their hands, and take them to the bathroom. Recently we were told, that we don't take enough pictures.  Not in quantity really, but that we also needed to take pictures during the week of the kids doing mundane things like studying etc. 
"Are you serious?" I asked my co-teacher.  "I have just uploaded 2000 photos to my kodak file.  Seriously, how many pictures do the parents need?"

So one day as we were playing outside under the bridge, the kids and I engaged in a funny game.  Take pictures wearing teacher Vanessa's sunglasses.  One of the kids wanted to wear my sunglasses, and we thought it was so funny we took their pictures.  They all started yelling out at that point, "I want to, I want to..."  So we had them line up for their picture with my sunglasses.  They were so cute with my movie-star sunglasses on their tiny faces.

Ocean World

Here are many of the Korean teachers in not only their swimsuits but their swimming clothes.

In the previous post, I discussed Korean culture with water.  They don't know how to swim, and therefore have a different relationship to water than do westerners. After summer camp, our school often does something nice for its overworked teachers.  This year, they chose to send us to OceanWorld. Because Korea is an overpopulated country, it is a guarantee that on any given day, nearly any tourist destination will be packed to the brim with people.

As is typical in Korean culture, caps and life vests were required.  For those of us who know how to swim, the life vests were cumbersome and annoying in all but one attraction, the wave pool.  I've never used a life vest in a wave pool, and don't plan to once back in the states, however in Korea, I was glad I had it.  Because the water was so entirely packed with people that if I moved an arm or a leg, I arbitrarily kicked or hit another person. And when the waves came, if it hadn't been for the life vests, I might have been clobbered and drowned by a piling of others on top of me.   I sometimes felt like a tackled football player at the bottom of a pile up.  Despite the excess number of bodies, the wave pool was quite fun.

However, in the "rapid river" which was like a lazy river except with bursts of waves, we were required to not only have on a life vest but also a tube.  And not sitting lazinly on top of the tube but inside the doughnut hole.  It pushed the life vest uncomfortable up my neck making the experience less fun than other "river rides" I've been on.  The boys had fun playing bumper tubes, attacking each other mercilessly with their yellow tubes like sumo wrestlers in the water.

All in all, though, the day was thrilling.  Ocean World had better rides than I expected.  Non of them were AMAZING, but they were fun.  The day was then followed by a free buffet in at nice hotel with sushi, salad, and other goodies.  It was quite a memorable day.  Below is the footage from the day.

Here's the Ocean world video.