Celebrating Suju's Birthday

Hey, look...I am still alive!! I can't believe it's already been a month since my last post, but I've been a busy girl these days!! Hopefully I can get caught up soon, though!!

August 9 was a very special day for my good friend, Suju! Of course, it was her birthday!! Luckily, Suju was home on summer vacation from Purdue, so I got to celebrate with her! Unluckily, Suju is now back in the States finishing up her degree....but no worries, she'll be back to Korea in a few months!! Here's a look at our celebration:

Suju's 'cheesecake'...which Korea hasn't exactly perfected yet...it wasn't as good as back home, but it was still ok!

Singing Happy Birthday to Suju!!

Me with the birthday girl!!

Suju and me with her mom (in orange) and another lady that works at their family restaurant. Isn't her mom beautiful!?! Suju has a good-looking future ahead of her!

Suju and her little brother...they're just precious!

The birthday feast!! Her mom made my favorite...참치김밥 (tuna sushi roll), even though it wasn't even my birthday!! I was stuffed from all of the amazing food!

Suju, I'll be looking forward to celebrating your 24th with you next year!!

Love Together!

"Love together!!" When I asked the high school girls that I would be teaching for the next three weeks what rule we should add to our list, the class captain said, "Love together!" It became our motto over the course of the next three weeks, as we not only learned about English, but also about life in general!

I got a call a few months ago, asking if I wanted to work this high school camp. But since I knew Kami's second week here would be my first week of camp, I tried to refuse the offer. With the other public school teachers' vacations already scheduled and the lack of available teachers, I had no choice.

So on we went...Christina, Lloyd, Danielle, and me...walking into a school where we had no idea what to expect and no idea what would happen while we were there.

I can only speak for myself, but I must say, this experience definitely ranks among the top in my teaching experiences. It was so amazing to teach these girls! On the first day of class, I walked in the room and the cheered for me! I knew from there, it was going to be a fun class! The girls continually surprised and amazed me.

Here are a few pictures from our time together!

The first day of class! Love together!

We did a lesson on beauty around the world and I wanted the girls to know beautiful they are!

I liked teaching the class in a discussion-style setting. These girls have a great deal of knowledge of the English language, so it was just important for me to get them speaking and using that knowledge.

On our final day of camp, we had a party! It was a lot of fun!

And they decorated the board! It was precious!

All the wonderful ladies!!

They gave me this paper where each of them had written me a sweet letter! I'll cherish it always!

Me and sweet Amy!

For the second hour of the camp, we joined all four classes and had coke floats! They had never had them, so it was a fun treat!!

And so ended the camp at ChungRyeol Girls High School. The camp may be over, but my heart is still happy!!

Kakao Talk

The newest and greatest app to enter my life....Kakao Talk. This is a Korean Messaging app that can be downloaded by anyone with a smartphone or app machine (i.e. iTouch, iPad, etc.). It reminds me a lot of BBM back in my Blackberry days, but it's so much better!!

What makes Kakao Talk so great for me? I can instant message with my family and friends from back home and it's like we're texting back and forth in real time. I definitely can't afford to text internationally, but this app makes my life so much better! And of course it's free!! :)

Why is Kakao Talk better than regular texting?? Well, I already answered the main reason...I can message internationally for free. Also, Kakao talk lets you attach photos and videos into the conversation with great ease! And one of my favorite features...you can know when the other person has read the message. This is great for me because I'm not left wondering if they got my message or not! Another great thing is that you can have group chats with multiple people and you don't have to worry about if you texted everyone or not...just do it in group chat!

So, if you have a smartphone or any kind of electronic that lets you download apps, I recommend this one!! It's amazing!!

Busan With Kami - Lotte Giants & Haeundae Beach

A couple of weeks ago, I was super excited to have Kami come to Korea for a visit! We had lots of good times together when we were here together a couple of years ago, so it was nice to reunite!!

Her visit allowed a visit to Busan and one of my favorite things to do in Korea...going to a Lotte Giants baseball game. The Giants were playing the LG Twins and Eujin got us amazing seats for the game! Even though it was about a million degrees, we had a great time together cheering on the winning team!

Here are some pictures from the game.

The next morning, Kami and I took a coffee break at Dunkin Donuts, where I found this sign. It's amazing to me that even huge chains like Dunkin Donuts would have such mistakes in their signage.

After that we headed to one of the places I've wanted to go to for a long time in Korea...Haeundae Beach. This place is quite famous in Korea, and let me tell you, it was quite an interesting experience.

You may remember my blog a few months ago about skin color and tanning/whitening in Korea...well, this beach experience was just another illustration of the fact that Koreans to not want to have tan skin. Let me just show you with the pictures!

When first entering the beach, I could only see one thing...UMBRELLAS!! Everywhere!! No lie!! I have never seen so many in my life!! Lucky for me and my lobster skin, they were super cheap to rent...only about 5 bucks!

A fort of umbrellas!!

Another big difference about Korean beaches is that Korean like to go swimming with all of their clothes still on. Look around the beach in the States and you see lots (and sometimes too much) flesh, but in Korea, must people still had their full clothing on. Hopefully you can see that in this picture.

Lucky for us...these were a guy that didn't mind getting a little sun!! ;) (Sorry, Dad!!)

Thus concluded our time in Busan! Now I can mark Haeundae off of my 'Things to do in Korea' list...whoo-hoo!!

Camp at Yokjido

I know I've been absent from my online life lately, but it's been for a good reason! I was spending a few days with fourteen 3rd- and 4th-graders on Yokji Island. I will tell you more about it later...but here's your preview!