All of the lights

I went with some friends to a Lantern Festival in Seoul's Downtown stream. Then Nelson and I went again. There were amazing traditional lanterns that were life size and larger. 

I need to catch up on my Korean history, but a lot of the lanterns were based on old Korean kings and their entourages.

Yup, that's Batman.

I also need to catch up on my Korean folktales. The tiger and grandma battle it out and grandma wins. Love it ^^

Another folktale. The girl gave her life so her blind father could see. So impressed by her selflessness, some god gave her life back. And she was reborn in a lotus flower...(the last part I might have made up lol).

Year of the Rabbit

Mash up of videos Nelson and I have recorded in the past 2 weeks.

Fun bar Nelson and I found in Hongdae.

Little Dudu, my new friend.

We also found some cool street art in Hongdae. 

More pics and the Thanksgiving feast Nelson and I dished up on Nelson's blog.

The good, the bad, and the ugly

The good: Nelson is coming to Korea in exactly 2 weeks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We went on our monthly field trip this past Thursday with the kindergarteners to a sweet potato farm. It was the shiiiiiiz, especially considering how much I love Korean sweet potatoes. I picked a couple of sweet potatoes and one of my coworkers gave me a bag full that she got.  

The teachers helped the little ones pick their own sweet potatoes.

The students were shouting, "Teacher, teacher look!" every 2 seconds. Very entertaining.

My Korean son picked many.

The pre-kinder students brought so much food; it was a junk food feast. Of course no one wanted to eat their lunch.

The bad: Ownership has changed at my school. I want to be optimistic about this change, but so far the transition has been really rough. I missed picture day with the kindergarteners and got dressed up for nothing because of poor management and idiocy. So...I took pictures for myself. Not as professional and not very well posed, but I like these better.

I don't know how professional photographers get these kids to sit still!

They love photobombing! Hahaha

The ugly: I made banana bread with my coworker, Samantha, and her Dutch Oven. She showed me how to use this contraption that she learned to use while in the Peace Corps in Mozambique. A dutch oven is basically a pot inside another pot, like a rice cooker, but without the steam vent so no heat escapes. I was extremely impressed. Although this banana bread doesn't look particularly appetizing in the picture, it was SLAMMING! I will be making this again...many times.

At the end of the field trip, one of my pre-kinder students decided she wanted to use my camera.

I was really tired because I just let her do it.

She took many funny shots of her classmate, Kevin.

Goofball :)

That's the photographer on the right, Dionisia.

Tofu is amazing

Ever since forever I've been wanting to learn how to make soft tofu stew or soondubu jjigae (순두부찌개). So I tried it for the second time today and it was delicious! (The first time I tried it in Florida and was unsuccessful. I now realize that not all tofu are the same and I was using the wrong type of tofu.)

My stepdad loves this dish. I secretly loved when he bought it from H-mart.

New phone, New recipes, New appreciation for Halloween

I've finally joined the touch phone world! I was reluctant and fought it for years, but I have a Samsung Galaxy S2 and I'm loving all the fun apps. Sorry, I can't play Words with Friends or Hanging with Friends because there is no Droid app for those games in Korea. I'm learning so much about phone technology with this phone. The best thing about this phone is it has an 8 megapixel camera! So I will probably be posting a lot more pictures :).

Some new recipes I've tried with success:

Spicy rice cake or ddukbokki (떡볶이). It came out well, but I made it wayyy too spicy. Burned my mouth. I'm sure Resa would have loved it. :P

Beef and quail eggs in soy sauce or jangjorim (장조림). It also has garlic, peppers, honey, and kelp. I believe I've had this dish before back home, but I never realized how much I liked it until I bought some from a butcher's shop in Korea. It's sooooo tasty and a new favorite.

 

I was dreading Halloween at work, but the little ones reminded me how much fun Halloween could be. 

Already fighting over a man (*shaking my head). Actually those two girls are always fighting over something.

Alex is feeding Brody one of the ghosts we made out of a dum dum, tape, and tissue.

We made chocolate muffin crumb dirt and sour worms the kids ate.

The little one hanging on my neck is Ted. He's my favorite pre kinder student and I wish my future son will be just like him. He's so sweet and has such personality! He brings me a sticker or candy every morning. He often carries my basket to the classroom when I teach his class. He always tries so hard to read and remember what I teach him. He also tries to punch or molest me at least once a day, but he's 5...all is forgiven after a stern look is returned with a smile and a giggle. He's obviously not afraid of me. I'm in love...sigh.

I was a twin for my Halloween costume. I know, very cheap. LOL. We had matching headbands!

There's my darling again! I <3 Ted.

We had at least 3 different Snow Whites. They were all adorable.

Check out the video below. We had a mummy contest...it was intense.

Longest day and week ever! My desk space hasn't looked this bad at work in a minute.