As this is my third Thanksgiving in Korea, I'm getting kind of used to being so far away for holidays. I would be more sad if I didn't have such a wonderful network of family and friends around the world, loving me and supporting me in all that I do. I'm living a good life here, and I'm grateful to each and every one of you who has made that possible. Thank you so so much.
On to my week!
The weather got cold but I'm feeling warm and fuzzy inside, because I had a great week!
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| Young Ah and I went for sushi for dinner, just because. This place was great and not expensive! |
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| Stopped for a delicious coffee before Korean class as well. |
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| I stopped by the convenience store for something and the girl working gave me this for free. It was yummy |
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| Hallelujah my new electric blanket arrived! It's big enough for my bed! |
On Wednesdays, the 5th graders clean the classroom when they're done with English class. This time, the girls were cleaning, and they're quite a talkative bunch. I hung around a bit so we could chat. They love asking me about America, Korea and my hair.
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| Cleaning started well and then they got distracted |
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| They wanted to do my hair and told me I look like I'm a princess. I love them |
Remember how I suffered through drama club? All the participating teachers got a gift!
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| Wooop this stuff is from Innisfree, so it's good. it's a ginger oil serum, which is supposed to be good for your skin and extra moisturizing for the winter! |
On Thursday, thanks to Cesca braving Costco, I was able to bring in pumpkin pie to share with my office, because I'm so thankful I have a great group of people to work with!
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| Most of them had never had the pie or seen a spray can of whipped cream. Still many surprises here in Korea! |
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| So tempted to buy this Oh Deer hat, but I resisted |
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| I am an etude house addict |
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| Ah yes, it's that time of year... frozen face time! |
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| Class was supposed to start early Friday. You can see how well that worked out |
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| I thought I was dealing with a Star Wars fan till I realized Exo released some promo about it, so that's why my kids knew it |
We started class early Friday and had a condensed schedule so that we could go on our teacher trip, which involved us heading out to Bomunsa Temple on Ganghwa Island, which is to the west of Seoul.
It was cold and the temple was up a huge hill, but it was fun!
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| SO STEEP |
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| Turn it and make a wish |
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| That tree is supposed to look like a dragon... |
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| fish bell |
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| Buddha's disciples. They all have different faces |
The temple was really pretty and the weather was crisp and clear.
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| Buddha becoming a god |
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| Young Ah and I were earmuff buddies! She finally got to come on the trip so that was nice! |
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| DRAGONFISH?!?!? |
After the temple, we headed to get our dinner, which consisted of a bunch of raw things from the ocean... not my favorite, but not terrible. I mostly stuck to the fish cause I'm still not really into raw oysters and clams and such.
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| Raw fish on an unreasonable mountain of cabbage |
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| You know it's weird when my co workers also keep asking "what's this??? can we eat this?" so I abstained |
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| live octopus made it's appearance. I ate some to please my co workers, but it really has no taste. It's just weird. |
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| Eating raw crab. I told my co workers my father will see this and ask "who are you? that's not my daughter!" |
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| It's really delicious |
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| Aftermath |
Some of my co workers drank quite a bit and Seon Kyeong decided that when we got back to Seoul (since the trip wasn't overnight this year), she wanted ice cream. Cesca came and met us after her class and, in Korean fashion, we ended up at a noraebang.
Seon Kyeong was hilarious and kept saying it was scary when both of us looked at her at the same time, since she was seeing double.
After a fun night, we headed back to my place and rested up for the next day.
Cesca helped me clean and organize my apartment a bit, since I've been lazy with mom's packages and have boxes all over the place. She also helped me bubble wrap my windows, since it's that time of year.
Since we only got a chance to have a quick dinner on actual Thanksgiving, we celebrated it Saturday with some great food at one of the restaurants we go to (it has great brunch and offered a thanksgiving meal this year).
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| ew |
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| Grace and her boyfriend joined us |
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| We always have a great time |
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| I must have been hungry haha |
After stuffing our faces, we weren't ready to call it a night, so we went to a nearby board game cafe to hang out.
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| Rummikub or something. It was new and fun but required lots of thinking and strategy |
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| so many games to choose from |
I slept in a bit on Sunday, but got up to finish my cleaning goals for the weekend. My closet is really small, so I had to change out my winter and spring clothes. Now, if you haven't seen my closet, you have no idea what a project that was haha.
After accomplishing that, I headed out to dance class.
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| Cesca and I bought these awesome Pusheen pants to wear to class, and dang we rocked them. |
Despite learning another EXO song, class was awesome. Growl is actually my favorite EXO song, as it has a place in my heart. When I first got to Korea, it was so popular that it was on practically every time I left the house. The dance was hard but so fun!!! We are doing this dance for our dance showcase, so I have to practice it a lot more. I'm so excited!
We deff won't look this good, but it will be fun!
We have a long way to go, but this was sooooo fun!!!
