Life changes so quickly

It's been a while, I know. I wish I could say I've been too busy to update, but I can't. To be honest, I just haven't gotten around to it. It's been over a year since I last updated, and let me tell you, times have changed.

I think the biggest change in my life is that, as of a few months ago, my program pulled all high school teachers from schools (which is where I was) and moved us all to elementary. I was nervous, sad, angry, and just plain disappointed. I loved my high school. I loved my students. I loved my teachers. I loved it all. But I have to say, I'm not disappointed any longer. Yes, I still miss my old students. Yes, I still miss my old teachers, but I go visit from time to time. But I love my new school. And the little bouncy ball students that I teach are absolutely adorable. They are so energetic and full of life. I honestly can say I'm just as happy here.

Another change huge change in my life was the tiny addition to my family. My baby girl (who isn't such a baby anymore), Kiki. It all started one day when a co teacher and I decided to join the local animal shelter dog walk. The day before we were going, I mentioned that the visit to the cat shelter was before, so we could just meet everyone at the dog shelter after the cat visit was finished. But when she expressed interest in going to the cat shelter as well, I (reluctantly) agreed to go. But once I was there, I was in love. These cats were so fluffy and adorable. I instantly realized that getting a cat was the solution to my pet-withdraw problems. Usually, I'm a dog person. I've only ever had dogs (mostly because my dad and I are both allergic to cats), but I realized my life is to crazy for the responsibility that having a dog brings. So after doing some research on how to manage living with cats while having allergies, I decided I'd adopt.

The first step was asking my landlord if I was even allowed to have a pet. So my co teacher went off to ask, and came back with an answer I was not expecting. "He says 'yes' you can have a cat. And he has a kitty for you." Huh? What? He HAS a kitty for me? Wait, kitty? Kitty as in cat? Or kitty as in kitten? "Baby cat!" Uhhh. I don't know if I'm ready for that. I've never raised a cat before, much less a kitten. "Just come see and then you can decide." Wait, what? It's here? At school? So we set off down the hallway, abandoning my newspaper students in the classroom to do their own "self study". I should've known. Who can look at an abandoned kitten and not take it home? Well, not me. They take me outside to our soccer field and unlock the equipment room door. And there she was, down in the bottom of a trashcan meant to keep soccer balls and hockey sticks, was my scared and shaking baby girl, no food, no water, no blanket. Just this tiny kitten. So I instantly scooped her up, wrapped her in my scarf, and whisked her away.

Once I got back to my classroom, it hit me. Uh, what have I done? What am I supposed to do with this? I found a box, put her in with my scarf, then took a picture, quickly sending it to my friends. "Um, this just happened." Luckily, Adrienne's boyfriend (who is Korean) was in Daegu, so after school, we met and he took us to the vet then to the store for all the supplies.

7 months and one bout of ringworm later, I've got the best cuddle bug in the world. Yes, she's still a kitten at heart, but when she isn't trying to chew off my hand or toes, shes the best companion I could've asked for.

Other than acquiring a family member and moving to a different apartment and school, not much else has changed. Friends departed, which was extremely hard, but we still keep in touch. And other friends moved to the opposite end of the city, but we still hang out regularly.

I've traveled a ton, including Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Taiwan, the Philippines, Myanmar (aka Burma), Japan (twice) and around Korea (partially with my mom, who visited in October!). But I'll get around to posting about those places, I promise!

Blooms and Blossoms

Every year in late March and the beginning of April, the most beautiful trees I've ever seen blossom here in Korea. Cherry blossom season. The time to enjoy these beauties is quite short, usually lasting from about a week and a half to just a few days. It was a shame that, this year, it was a pretty short cherry blossom season, with a cold front that came through coupled with some rain, but I did have a few chances to enjoy their beauty.

Cherry Blossoms outside of my school

Magnolia tree near my school

Sometimes I wondered if, because I was a foreigner that just stood in awe while everyone else looks at me like I'm an idiot. But we visited Keimyung University, a local university only about 20 minutes from my house. When we got there, we realized that it wasn't only us that thought they were so beautiful. Koreans were lined up everywhere taking full blown photo shoots. Not only was it wonderful seeing the beauty of the trees, but also great entertainment watching all the things these Koreans do to get pictures. They sit in the middle of roads, they climb in bushes and they do mass jumping pictures. It's hilarious. There really is no describing the beauty of these trees in words, nor with pictures, but I'll upload a few anyway.

Beautiful Keimyung University

 Don't worry about cars...

 

Me and my friends can't even coordinate 4 people jumping at the same time.... 

Of course some people needed the token picture with Wagooks

Pickle the Puppy

Recently several friends of mine have been posting quite a few pictures of their adorable pets and I've gotten quite home sick in the fact that I miss my dog. No she wasn't really mine, and no we didn't snuggle and cuddle like I would've liked (we had more of a jealous-sister relationship haha), but you ever really understand how much being around a pet makes a difference until they aren't around anymore (or in this case, I'm not around anymore). Being around dogs and puppies brings so much warmth and fun into you life, and I definitely missed that.

So a few of my friends and I decided to head to the animal shelter (about 45 minutes by bus from my house) to take some doggies for walks. My friends had gone before, but I had never made it out with them. When we got there, it broke my heart to see the adorable dogs in the cages, all I wanted to do was take them all home with me. After cuddling with several of the dogs (and one adorable, tiny puppy the size of my hand) we grabbed our harnesses and leashes and headed out with our dogs. Apparently they asked Adrienne to sign a little piece of paper with some of her information, but sometimes they don't even do that. You just walk in, grab a dog, and go play.

So we took our puppies on a quick 10 minute walk to Duryu Park, along the way giving our dogs names. Mine was Pickle, I have no idea why, it just seemed to fit. Adrienne's was Heisenberg because he was old, and Lolly's was Arrow because she had a 'v' shape on her head that looked like an arrow. We walked up the (extremely muddy and messy) path to the main area of the park where we were greeted with a huge field full of people and their dogs. It struck me as crazy that they would let their dogs run free (without leashes attached) but I guess that is just the sign of a well-trained dog. We plopped down in the middle of one grassy area (well, would-be grassy, but it is currently dead grass) and held on to our doggies tightly (we didn't know how well-trained they were). We were instantly swarmed by not only dogs wanting to play but also kids. It was adorable.

It was a ton of fun playing with the dogs, I definitely needed a little puppy love in my life. It was hard to take them back to the shelter, but I can't wait to go back and see them again!

I've got a lot to be thankful for...

Our beautiful Thanksgiving table

It's the time of year when I begin to look at my life and reflect. Not only on the past year, but my life in general. I think about my friends and family, I think about my job, I think about my past and my future. And I think about food. Yes, food. Who doesn't think about food when it comes to the holiday season? You're lying to yourself if you claim you don't.

I have to admit that Thanksgiving dinner (or lunch, or whole-day meal, whatever you want to call it- and don't forget about the left overs) is my favorite meal of the entire year. And it is interesting because I never really knew why, until 2 weeks ago. Yes, it's great to be surrounded by family and friends, but this post isn't about the mushy part of Thanksgiving, it's about the FOOD. I learned that Thanksgiving food is the best because: 1. You really eat it any other time of the year, but you could, 2. There is just so much to choose from, and 3. Carbs. And cheese. And more carbs. I realized that Thanksgiving food is unique because you really eat a TON of carbs and cheese (which I love, by the way). If I have anything to say about it, if there is something that could remotely be considered healthy served at Thanksgiving, you've done it wrong. Broccoli? Throw some cheese on that shiz! Green beans? Sugar, salt and bacon please! Turkey? What's turkey without gravy?

A Thanksgiving toast- no judging on the brand!

But when you live in a country that you struggle to find things that you need for all your yummy homemade recipes, cooking for Thanksgiving can become-- interesting. I remember Skyping with my family once and they asked me what my friends and I would do. I told them we were planning on a pot-luck style dinner. When they asked about the turkey, I told them it is REALLY difficult, and expensive, to find turkey in this country, so we were planning on getting chicken. Do you plan on roasting it yourself? Seeing as we have VERY limited oven space, we will probably just walk down the the corner and get one out of the trucks. Apparently this isn't a normal response in America (it seemed totally normal, and logical to me at the time). I then had to explain that there are several trucks/cars that park on the street, open the back, and it is a full blown rotisserie! And the chickens look and smell delicious! Even though I was totally serious at the time, we ended up not getting a out-of-the-back-of-a-truck chicken, just a normal chicken from the store. Already roasted.

Chicken

Thanksgiving took a little more planning than I thought. I knew exactly what I was going to make. Broccoli and cheese casserole. My absolute favorite casserole. But when you can't find cream of celery soup, nor Velveeta cheese, it becomes a little difficult. OK, I'll do a different casserole. Cream of mushroom is at Costco. FOR $20 for a few cans. No dice. OK, then I'll have to do something else. I'd been put in charge of vegetables, so Adrienne and I decided to take a stroll to our local market and bought random veggies- zucchini, broccoli, corn, peppers. So I asked my parents and asked what I could throw together with what I had. It seemed like I was missing at least one ingredient for all the recipes they were suggesting. So I got online, chose 2 random recipes and decided to try to combine them.

When recipes go wrong

Goal: Yummy stuffed Zucchini. I had 4 halves of zucchini, peppers, garlic, sausage (technically beer and cheese bratwurst but you deal with what you have), cream cheese, onion, Ritz and Parmesan. So I just randomly threw stuff together. All 4 were different. 2 had cream cheese, the other 2 had Ritz and Parmesan on top. Some had bell peppers, some had garlic salt, some had Italian herb seasoning. I had no clue how they would taste, but it was a shot. So I baked them up, and headed over to Kaleena's to cook the rest of the veggies closer to cooking time (there was also an incident where Adrienne decided to launch one of my zucchinis across the street, therefore we had one zucchini with a little less filling).

The food ended up being amazing. And we had waaayyyy too much! We had the zucchinis, broccoli, corn, green beans, carrots, stuffing, mac n cheese, sweet potatoes (with rainbow marshmallows haha), fresh baked rolls and breads, pumpkin cream cheese dip, SWEET mashed potatoes with no gravy (apparently English people don't know the importance of this key dish in an American Thanksgiving, we still love you though Lauren, maybe) and chicken. For desert we had pumpkin pie, apple pie, apple crisp, brownies and ice cream. OMG it was amazing. So delicious.

My plate

I spy food comas!

We had games too. Jenga, Pictionary and a whip cream fight (that was only between Kaleena and Kieran). You know you've eaten a ton when the punishment for losing Jenga is "BROWNIE! BROWNIE! BROWNIE!" Also, when multiple people are down for the count in food comas!

Kaleena lost the whip cream fight

Concentration

Korean-style Jenga?

Adrienne lost- open wide!

Kieran thought she needed a little whip cream with that brownie

She got me back

Won Eyk and his (lacking) drawing skills

The group, minus 2

It was a great time with great friends. Hopefully next year will be just as great!