Birthday

Usually I am pretty excited when it comes to my birthday. I used to have a reputation of telling the whole neighborhood weeks before that I would become a year older and that everyone should get me a present. Now that I have turned 25, I feel like I have nothing to look forward to anymore. This is the year when the body officially begins to decay. No more developing, just decaying. :(

On a lighter note, I found out that Korea can make some legit Italian food. Korea is big on fusion when it comes to foreign dishes and usually always fails on my palate. For my birthday dinner, we booked a spot on the 42nd floor of our apartment building that we have been eyeing for a while. Santa Lucia overlooks the Pyeongchon/Beomgye area and its interior is very romantic. The price is very reasonable and the taste is absolutely delish!

Mussel salad

This appetizer dish tasted like it looked. The restaurant was very generous and the size of the plate was bigger than my place setting. Along with a tasty spring salad came these giant mussels topped with a savory spicy tomato sauce.

Seafood Pasta

As my main dish, I ordered the Seafood Pasta. I wish the quality of this photo was better. This dish came out with a huge crab claw sticking out of the pasta. This creamy dish was filled with tomatoes, broccoli, and little bits of crab and scallops.








I wish I took photos of what my friends ordered, but I know that they enjoyed it as much as I have.

After dinner, we decided to relocate to a bar called The Flair Bar. One disappointment of the night was that this bar adds tax to every drink. This super expensive bar also made the birthday girl go behind the bar with her boyfriend and made them do some weird stuff I will never understand.

Bryan at Flair Bar

Look at this crazy menu at this bar. It starts off looking like a regular liquor box and then fans out to that!
















The rest of the night ends with me acting old and sneaking out of the bar to go to bed. Thanks to my friends for coming out and celebrating this 'awful' day with me!!

2012.

Picture courtesy of Karolina K.

I've done the countdown in Times Square, I've done it at church multiple times, but I have never experienced a new year like this.... :)

Since my lovely friends in Suwon were in charge of the Christmas party, I thought it would be appropriate if I took care of the New Year's. This party was pretty much planned last minute and I think it's safe to say that it turned out pretty awesome. Old and new friends showed up fashionably late and ready to party.

Unlike America, the land of easy party foods, it was tough to come up with snacks to feed my guests. Thanks to handydandy HomePlus, Dave and I were able to whip up some yummy and wallet friendly goodies.

Pomegranate White Sangria
This drink only needs 4 ingredients: Pomegranate seeds, any white wine, sprite, and slices of orange for decoration. This easy to make drink was probably the biggest hit at the party.







Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter Sandwiches

Sounds like a handful, but this delicious snack is so easy to make!  Just take the Korean version of Ritz crackers, spread some PB on it and make sandwiches out of them. Melt some chocolate, in this case Ghana chocolate (also popular in Korea), and VOILA! If you want to be fancy, just roast some peanuts, crush them up, and sprinkle on top.

For those who watch their figure
We have a couple of vegetarian friends that we definitely did not want to disappoint. These finger snacks were made by spreading some cream cheese on toasted bread and topping them with  water crest and slices of cucumber. Sounds extremely healthy, but tastes awesome too.







Korean Cho-Bap

I guess this also falls under the vegetarian category. You can find Cho-Bap in sushi restaurants around here, but making them at home is definitely cheaper and it takes no time to make these. A big pack made to feed 4 people cost less than 6,000Won. Just mix rice with the seasoning that comes in the pack, roll them into little balls and stuff them into the delicious marinated tofu pockets that's also included.







We had other snacks like chips and salsa, PB&Banana sandwiches, and pizza. Overall, making all this deliciousness took no time. Dave and I definitely did not slave over the stove and we had more than enough food to feed over 10 people.

Since most of my money was spent on restaurants my first year here, my new year's resolution is to cook more at home. I miss all kinds of food from back in America, and will definitely try to recreate my own version of them using ingredients available in Korea. 2012, please be good to me!

Final spread

Surgery

As most of you in the Facebook world know by now, I just had a Septoplasty. In other words, I had a crooked nasal passageway and had to get it straightened out. Apparently, deviated septums run in both sides of my family and even my little cousins have underwent this procedure. Why even go through all this? Because my friends/family couldn't tell the difference between me and a bear snoring.

A good news about getting this surgery in Korea is that it only cost me ~$US250 including medicine. Cheap right? This same procedure (with a couple of others) would have cost me over $6000.00 in Amurrica.

Surgery:
This was my first surgery ever. I had no idea how strict they were with jewelry and nail polish. They even cut off a bracelet I'd been wearing since college. Anyways, after crying about that, I had to strip naked and get into some patient scrubs! Yay to feeling free. I was then given an IV along with some antihistamine shots and was to wait about an hour before I could be all cut up.

Once I was taken to the OR, I was shot with anesthesia multiple times. It hurt so much, I yelled the F word outloud a couple of times. After that set in and lost all feeling of my nose/mouth, the doctor came in and cut my nose open. As he was shoving stuff up my nose, I could feel my nasal bone snap, crackle, and pop! Of course it didn't hurt, but I felt my bone being shifted around in there. After all that, I could feel the string as they sewed me up.

The surgery itself only took 40 minutes. They finished me off by shoving all kinds of gauze up my nostrils and then taping me up with more gauze in case I bled out. And bled out, I did. My grandma was NOT being supportive and all I felt like doing was crying. Every time I cried, the more I bled. Not only did I bleed through my nose, I even bled out my eyes. I felt like the bad guy from Casino Royale, as he wiped the blood off his eyes.

Post-op:
Going home was not fun. I nearly passed out as I tried to get up and thought about how effed up it would be if I fell forward and hit my nose on the ground. I wasn't allowed to wash my face or breathe through my nose (not that I could, even if I tried). Trying to sleep was even worse. I was told to sleep sitting up, or propped up. ugh. I woke up every hour because I was forgetting to breathe and nearly choked.

Look how wonderful and happy I look right here. I had so much gauze up my nose, it nearly doubled the size of my normal nose! Eating was hard, drinking was hard, talking was hard, life was hard.

Day 2 was not bad at all UNTIL I had to go back to the hospital to get the gauze taken out. OMG I never felt pain like that ever in my life. I cried so hard and told the doctor to just stop. He only worked on one nostril and I was crying like a little baby. Sleep was horrible. This time, I was sleep talking. I still have couple strips of plastic in there. I think it's to hold my nose upright and makes sure it sets straight.

Day 3, I am still taking drugs and am doing a nasal cleanse.  I have bloody mucus dripping out my nose and have to make sure that I wash out everything bad in there. On a funny note, look how much medicine I have!

I have other kinds of drugs to take, but thought it was funny that I could wrap my meds around my neck like a scarf.

Anyways, Merry Christmas Eve. Hopefully my nose will feel better and I can actually breathe out of it.

rewind

I figured I should post some pictures of Korea: Round 1 before I move on with the next.. enjoy :)

Nami Island: You can sub it all the way there. I would say it takes just under 2hrs.
If you're looking to have an adventure with your friends or a mate, Nami is the perfect place. Once you're on the island, you will find many stores that sell all kinds of treasures. We even found an Italian restaurant with an Italian chef cooking our food!
I would also suggest going there earlier and renting bikes to venture around the island. There are many tree lined pathways- very picturesque/romantic place.
I should also mention that the fee for the transportation/entrance for this island is only 40,000W. This includes zip-lining to the island and boat ride back, as well as spending as much time as you want on the island.




Left:
The mountainous looking place over yonder is the island from the mainland. It's an island surrounded by the Han River.

Right:
These are my friends. Right behind us is the zipline, which is one of two ways to get to this island. The other is a boat, much better suited for those who are scared of heights.

Left:
There is an ostrich farm on this island, which is pretty random. I've never seen one so close to me in real life.

Korea: Round 2

It's been a while since I've been on my "blog-game."
Honestly, I got sidetracked once I started making friends. Korea, the first time around, was a roller coaster of emotions. I think it all had to do with adjusting. I was pretty sure that this would be the end of me teaching in Korea...but I was wrong.

After finishing one year with my first school, I was sure excited to start another with a different school. Don't get me wrong. The students at my first school were wonderful. If anything, we bonded so well that I got a little bit emotional on my last day. However, new changes=new feelings. I definitely appreciate my new school and am really excited to be working here for the next year :)

Now that I am more grown-up and ready to face responsibilities, I decided to get back to blogging. No more drinking and going out every night. No more eating out every night. Basically, more saving money and more venturing out to my surroundings in the motherland!

My posts will consist of great money saving deals as well as my adventures!

stupid kids.....?

So I never thought of myself to be good with kids or ever had the patience to be in the same room with them for longer than 10 minutes.

As my 4th week of teaching is about to end, I realized that I really like elementary kids. I mean, they do get rowdy and they are a bit harder to control, but you cannot blame their eagerness to learn. They are constantly raising their hands up and trying to answer your question before you even ask it! We learned about King Tut today and these kids were just so enthusiastic about even having to act out his "mysterious death". I love them!

Now middle schoolers on the other hand... ahem. BUT!! As much as I want to hate them and yell at them, I can't help but feel sorry for them. By the time they come into my classroom at 7pm, these kids are worn out with school and other after school activities. I asked them today what time they go to sleep and when they wake up and it seems like the consensus was that they only get 5 to 6 hrs of sleep a night.

They are bogged down with midterms and tests that determine which high school they will go to. The last thing they want is to go to an after school english class and learn from a teacher who has no idea what they go through. It's a sad life. Korean parents ARE crazy. Parents work for their children's education in Korea, therefore they expect more out of them...hoping that one day their children can afford to take care of them. Kind of makes sense...right?

I hear about the suicide rates among students here in Korea and it's pretty shocking how high it's gotten.

I thought my parents were bad back in the States... I can't even imagine what these kids go through.. whew!

Good News, Bad News

Sometimes I just have no motivation to post things on my blog. Remember when Xanga used to be the Facebook of its time? I used to write crap and got all kinds of comments and those 2 gold coin lookin things that i cant remember what they were called!

Anyways, so week 4 of teaching is comin' up for me. It sucks a little because the previous guy who was a temp for my class spoiled the hell out of these kids with YouTube videos and candy. Everyday they ask "Teacher, videos!" or "Teacher, where's the candy?" ugh.

But on a positive note, I think some of my students really like me. Either that, or they're suckin' up to me. whatever. I like it. I'm a sucker of compliments :)

Couple weeks ago, I decided to check my e-mail right before teaching class. I get an e-mail from my mother telling me she's coming to Korea soon because she won a plane ticket through some raffle. WHAT THE EFF. That totally ruined my day and I wanted to punch every kid in the class.

For those of you who do not know, I have been having a bit of a fall out with my

mom. Now before you say, "she just wants the best for you" and other cliche nonsense like that, it's been real tough. Like so tough that I can honestly say it was a huge factor on my decision to come to Korea. I figured distance might help our relationship. Hell.... now she's coming here.

My mom and my gramma double teaming on me could possibly lead to my death here in Korea. A co-worker of mine said they dreamt I was dead and they all got the bad news at work. Well, I guess I know one possible way I could die.

So here's my friend Courtney. I've known her since training and we've been stickin' it through in Suwon since we've been here. She is probably one of the realest girls I have met.

I wish I could see the others that I have met since training, but seeing that all our schedules are hectic and there is distance between us, it'll definitely be hard. Hopefully we'll have a huge reunion. A COATEL MOTEL HOLIDAY INN reunion (inside joke).

Oh, and I miss my pup :(