I'm a skinny fat person

Dennis and I are now drinking Herbalife shakes because we're fat. Both our visceral fat levels are higher than they should be, I'm lacking minerals, not drinking enough water (at least 2L a day), and I need to build lots more muscle than I have. This is what the little machine told us in a print out when we visited Grace, the Herbalife rep and president of her company, Greendiet.

So, we've both joined the gym, are drinking the shakes, and are watching what we eat more closely. It's so annoying! But we have to do it because we want to be healthier.

Now, yesterday I came across this website, which pretty much scared me away from drinking milk and pretty much eating all kinds of meat, including eggs. I'm terrified! And apparently the best thing to do is get all meat and dairy products from farmers that raise pastured livestock, that is, they're are outside pretty much all day eating grass, and bugs (what they should be exposed to), and aren't pumped with antibiotics and fed grain (corn) which makes them mature too fast and makes them sick (hence the need for antibiotics). Now, how the heck am I supposed to find farms like this in Korea???

I suggest you all try to follow the above website to try to lead much, much healthier lives. And we wonder why cancer, diabetes, heart disease, are so prevalent and bacteria such as E. coli and things like Swine flu and Avian flu even exist. The term "watch what you eat" couldn't be more important these days. Yikes.

Wednesday, Nov. 23rd meals

Breakfast
-half an Asian pear
-water

Lunch

-beef(?) curry on white rice
-kimchi(?) I'm not sure because it tasted very different than the regular kimchi
-salad with a mustard/sugar dressing (it was disgusting so I only had a couple bites)
-tofu soup
-water

Snack
-half an Asian pear
-water

Dinner
-packaged mushroom sauce on white rice
-Starbucks green tea latte (tall)
-water

Supplements
-fish oil pills

Tuesday, Nov. 22nd meals

Breakfast
-cereal with milk
-two cups pomegranate green tea

Snack
-mini croissant

Lunch

-macaroni salad
-kimchi
-some sort of meat (pork?)
-eggplant
-water

Snack
-whole Asian pear
-water

Dinner
-adobo with 1/2 cup rice
-banana and frozen blueberry shake
-2 cups decaf lychee green tea
-bowl of cranberry granola cornflakes

Supplements
-fish oil pills

Monday, Nov. 21st meals

Breakfast
- half a banana
- 2 cups of pomegranate green tea (hot)
- water

Snack
- 1/4 of a strawberry jam sandwich on white bread

Lunch

- vegetable and seafood pancake (2 pieces)
- vegetable omelet (2 pieces)
- lotus root (5 pieces)
- cucumber and onion kimchi (I think)
- shredded egg
- 1/4 persimmon
- some sort of green vegetable
- mandu soup (ate about 1/3 of it)
- water

Snack
- banana
- apple flavoured yogurt drink
- water

Dinner
- adobo with 1/2 cup rice wrapped in green leaves
- a few sips of sparkling water
- half a small bag of pizza flavoured ruffle chips
- 2 cups decaf lychee green tea (hot)
- a glass of banana and frozen blueberry smoothie

Supplements
-fish oil pills

health

I'm going to this place on Thursday with my friend Heather and possibly Dennis that tests how healthy/unhealthy your body is. Apparently, they wet your bare feet and hands and put you on this machine and you grab things with your wet hands and it measures your muscle tone, visceral fat, and a number of other things. How it does this, I have no idea. Friends of ours did it a few weeks ago and told us about it. The first visit is free. Of course, the company wants you to come back and buy their health products, but you're under no obligation to do so after your first visit. I just want to see my results. I'm actually pretty scared. One of our friends was given some scary news, but not shocking (to me) because of what I've seen him eat. I'm really glad he went because he needs a wake up call. A normal measurement is around 50, but his was at 150! If you don't know what visceral fat is it's the fat that surrounds your organs. Exercise doesn't get rid of it, a major change in your diet does. He and Mariko (his wife) are now changing their diets to lead healthier lives. Thank goodness because they're really good people and I'd like them to both be here for a long, long time. Mariko's actually quite healthy and fit, but her job is still the hardest... motivated her husband to eat healthier without sounding like a nag.

I'm supposed to log what I eat in the next four days before my appointment, so I've decided to log it on here. My next posts will just be listing what I ate, so bear with me.

my second pepero day in korea

11/11/11... that makes it super Pepero day! Lotte, the brand that makes Pepero denies creating this "holiday" to make money.

Here's what Dennis and I got from our kids yesterday:

This is what Dennis got.

This is what's inside the green box.

This is what I got. Really sucks that I can't eat any of it right now!!! I'll explain that later.

oh boy, have i been slacking! here's september and october in a nutshell

Well, it's almost mid-November. Actually it's Remembrance Day back home, which means a long weekend. I wish I was having one of those right now. November and February are the only months here that don't have a long weekend. This month is gonna feel super long!

So, what's been going on? Well, fall has been beautiful here. It's almost everyone's favourite time of year here. September came and went really fast. I went shopping with Heather in Myeong Dong as Dennis' birthday gift to me. I can't shop with him and Heather can't shop with Luke, so the obvious thing to do was go together. Men. Haha. We only went to 3 stores and were out of there quick because it gets so busy, and plus Heather and Luke were hosting an football game at their place on their huge projector screen. Packers vs. Broncos. Heather and Luke are from Wisconsin and our other friends, Mariko and Brandon are from Colorado. Anyway, Heather and I went to Forever 21, Zara, and H&M. I think I spent over $200 and it felt good!

I was pretty much sick for the entire month of October, so that sucked. We went out for Luke's 25th birthday, twice. First we went to Jinsu's (his Korean friend) coffee shop and went to the Rainbow Room in Gangnam (a 30 minute cab ride from our place). The Rainbow Room is a hookah bar. We smoked orange tobacco and some other kind of tobacco, which wasn't as good as the orange. Luke was super wasted and passed out there. Pretty funny because he spent about 20 minutes convincing us to go there because we were really sick and just wanted to go home, and then he ends up passing out. We didn't mind at all because he just wanted to be surrounded by friends on his birthday and how could we say no to that? The cab ride back was awesome. The cabbie packed 8 of us (9 including the cabbie) in the car so that we could save money! Haha! Out of the 9 of us, only 2 were girls and the rest were very big and heavy boys. I don't know how we did it, but we did, and it ended up being $5 each instead of $15. His second birthday thing was the "real" celebration. We went bowling, which was super fun! I've never played 4 games in a row before. Haha. Next we went to Jinsu's coffee shop where we had Korean bbq and Wisconsin style bbq where they put the bbq-ed burgers and hot dogs in a pot of boiling beer and onions. It's quite juicy and tasty! And we had lots of drinks, of course. It was a bit awkward being there at first because Luke was pissed off at Jinsu. When we were bowling, they got a phone call from their friend James who was helping set up at Jinsu's coffee shop. Jinsu was going to close down his shop for Luke's birthday and decided to charge each of us $12 each (I think). The money wasn't a problem for any of us, we told Luke. But we, especially Luke and Heather, were pissed off that he just decided to pull that on us right before the party and not weeks before when the planning started. Luke let James know how pissed off he was and I'm sure James let Jinsu know. Needless to say, Luke tried to pay Jinsu at the coffee shop, but Jinsu didn't take it. All was well after that. Heather bought a huge sheet cake from Costco and one of their Korean girlfriends decided it would be funny to try to throw the entire cake in Luke's face. She wasn't able to do it, but their other Korean guy friend there did. Only a fourth of the cake was left, and Heather did not look please at all. She was pretty excited about the cake. Ah, well, it was all in good fun. The smarter thing to do was just to get a piece of cake and use that instead of the entire expensive sheet. Purple and green icing ended up on my white jacket, which I just got from the dry cleaners a few weeks before, but no biggie. I tried cleaning it off, but I couldn't get it all. I'll just drop it off at the dry cleaners again, but this time I should pick it up sooner than 6 months later. Haha! The dry cleaners jokingly got mad at me for taking so long to pick it up! Anyway, after Jinsu's coffee shop we went to the Norae bang (karaoke room) next door and sang for about an hour.

The girls and I didn't make any cupcakes in September for some reason, but for Halloween Heather and Mariko wanted to make these cupcakes for their kids, so we did. Here they are:

October was also quite stressful for me because I was in charge of the haunted house at my school and I just had no idea what to do. It turned out to be quite good and lots of kids cried. Success!

It's my birthday tomorrow.

I'll be turning 32 and I can't say that I'm particularly happy about it. I'm not one of those people who hates their birthday because it means getting older, or anything like that. I guess I just feel like I haven't accomplished as much as I would have hoped to at this age. And who do I have to blame? Myself. I think that's what I'm most frustrated about. I have all the power within me to do what I want to do, be the person I want to be, go where I want to go yet I haven't done pretty much any of it knowing all that.

Is this what a mid-life crisis feels like? If that's what I'm having right now then I'll be dead in my 60s! I better get a grip!

Maybe I just need to go eat something. I get cranky when I'm hungry.

my august

August here was pretty dang hot, humid, and filled with monsoon rains. I don't miss that weather.

With some of Dennis' help and with the help of a website and book, I was able to learn how to read Hangeul (Korean writing). I can read it, but understanding what I'm reading is a totally different thing. I'm also learning how to write it properly, but that's not going very well.

Oh, this didn't start in August, but back in the beginning of July I joined a couple of Dennis' co-workers, Heather and Mariko, in their cupcake baking endeavor. They thought it would be a good idea for the girls to get together and do something while our husbands playing poker together. And I guess cupcake baking became it. This happens on the first Friday of every month. They borrow our oven and we bake in Heather's apartment, which is in the next building over. Mariko's place is much bigger than ours and is two subway stations over, but we can't do it there because that's where the poker games happen. They pretty much buy all the ingredients and bake the cupcakes for their students and I provide the microwave and kinda help out with the decorating and whatever else they need help with. The girl talk, the shows we watch on Heather (and Luke's) huge projector screen, and the baking are all really fun. The drama we hear about from the boys' poker nights are also very, very entertaining, but unfortunately can't be discussed here.

We actually started a Facebook page called "Friday Night Cupcakery". Feel free to "Like" it and check out some of the stuff we've done! Here are a few pics.

So far we've done pie cupcakes, cookie monster cupcakes with cookie dough centres, red and white Canada Day and red, white and blue Independence Day cupcakes, and a rainbow Pride cake! I'm not sure what next month will bring!

As for the rest of my August. That will have to wait until my next post because it's way past my bedtime!

end of July/August/September.... in the news

Shooting rampage in Norway - July 22

Amy Whinehouse dies - July 23

Riots in London - August 6

Canuck Rick Rypien dies at 27 - August 16

Hurricane Irene affects U.S. east coast and Atlantic Canada - August 20-29

45 hockey players die because of Russian airliner crash - September 7

10th anniversary of 9/11 attacks - September 11 (obviously)

Did I miss any big headliners?

alright

I've been a bad blogger. Almost 2 months without a post. Shameful! Pure laziness is my excuse.

So, what's new with me? Well, work has kind of had its ups and downs. August was pretty bad for my students, behaviour-wise. They were so out-of-control! But I came up with this Quiet Game star system where all my kids start out with 5 stars beside their name and the rules are this...

I will erase one star for each of the following: speaking without raising your hand, speaking Korean, getting out of your seat, playing with your chair, falling off your chair, saying bad things to your classmates, touching your classmates, and most importantly, not listening to your teacher (me).

If they have 5 stars at the end of the day they get stickers to stick on their sticker sheet. When they fill their entire sticker sheet they get a present. So far this month this Quiet Game has been working well. I keep forgetting to give them stickers at the end of the day though because I often don't have them during the last block of the day. They usually have a different class with a different teacher last block. I also have to figure out what to get them as a present once they fill their sticker sheets. A lot of them are pretty dang close to filling it! Maybe that's why I haven't been giving them stickers. Heheh.

Anyway, what else has happened these past two months... ? Let me think and I'll post more later.

Our 2nd anniversary

We got married July 7, 2009, so it was our 2nd anniversary not too long ago! Our anniversary fell on a Thursday and we were thinking of going for a nice dinner on "Cafe Street", the main street outside our building, but it was monsoon raining so we opted to save it for the weekend. We didn't want to get soaked in our somewhat dressy garb. We also agreed to save money and not get each other anything, so I just got Dennis a card, but what did he do? He broke the rules. He had flowers and chocolate delivered to my work. It was very sweet and a very nice surprise!

That night we didn't want to cook, so we went back to the restaurant where we had our first date, Bennigan's. Well, the actual place was the Bennigan's in Daegu, but we're not gonna take the 2 and a half hour train to Daegu just to have dinner there. Not the best food, but it's the romantic thought that counts.

Friday night, the weather cleared up so we decided to have our nice dinner. Restaurant of choice: Nairobi. An African themed Italian restaurant. Yes, quite strange. As we were heading out the door I got a call from Missy asking me where the all-you-can-drink wine joint (Marianne's) was on Cafe Street. She also asked if we had a spare umbrella. Spare umbrella?! Apparently it started raining from the time we looked outside our window, got changed, and walked to our door. Whatever, were all ready to go and hungry! My feet and sandals got soaked, the humidity messed up my hair and we were sticky, but we were "dry" otherwise. Dinner was good, but nothing special, and not as pricey as we thought it would be. After dinner, I needed dessert so we went to Baskin Robbins where I had my usual green tea scoop and chocolate scoop in a cone. It was a lovely night despite the rain.

my weekday start

So here is what my typical work weekday morning is like:

I wake up at 7am, shower, change, put my face on, dry my hair and tie it back (since it's so friggin hot and humid these days), and get my snack and water bottle/tea mug ready. I don't usually eat breakfast at home, but I have some sort of snack or coffee before the first class begins (I definitely need the energy). I leave the apartment at 7:48am and head to the subway, which is a 4 minute walk from our building. I usually put my headphones on and turn on my ipod on my way to the station. I get my subway card ready and swipe it to get through the turnstiles. The subway used to come at 7:55 on the dot, but now it's been coming at 7:58 or sometimes a few minutes past 8:00. Late is not good because I have a shuttle to catch and it doesn't wait!

I make sure I'm last to get on the subway because I like to stand right at the door since I get off on the next stop (Migeum) and I like to be the first off. I hate the pushing and shoving, so I like to get out asap. My train's not usually packed because I'm going against rush hour. It doesn't go towards Seoul, which would obviously be busier.

So I get off the train and head up the escalator. I used to take the stairs, but I've gotten lazier. Heheh. I get hit with the smell of freshly baked goods on my way up the escalator because Migeum station has a waffle type shop, a baked goods shop, a little Dunkin' Donuts, and a coffee shop. It's great to be greeted by the smell of freshly baked goods in the morning!

So after the escalator, I swipe my card to get through the exit turnstiles and head to exit number 7. Oh, exit number 7, how I despise you. There are 5 sets of stairs to go up to street level and each set contains 15 stairs. So, this means every morning I have to walk up 75 stairs. I'd have to say that's the worst part of the morning for me. You should have seen my face the first time I looked up to see how far up I had to go. I immediately looked around for a nearby escalator or elevator! But, get this, the escalator beside this monster stairwell is going DOWN from street level! Why would you make the escalator going DOWN and not up???? Oh right, I'm in Korea where nothing makes sense and where things are usually backwards and illogical. But I still love their food. That's definitely one thing they have going for them.

After my hike up the stairs (am I being too dramatic? Maybe for others 75 stairs is nothing. Haha. Well, for me it's a hike!)... anyway, after my HIKE up the stairs I check to see if I have enough time to go to the Family Mart or the other convenience store nearby to get a coffee or breakfast (sometimes they're one and the same). And those who know me know I don't drink coffee, but here with a job teaching 5 year old kids, coffee is often a necessity to get through the morning. I don't mean real coffee, but those coffees that taste like dessert... French vanilla, mocha, and caramel macchiato flavoured, etc.

Then I walk over, cross the street, and get on the school shuttle bus with the other teachers. The bus leaves at 8:10 exactly, but lately it's been leaving a couple minutes later to wait for Donna. She's always late! Haha. It takes about 10-15 minutes to get to school from there. Once at school, we all get ready for the crazy, exhausting day ahead.

And that's my typical weekday start to the day.

summer vacation!

Although we only get a week off, it's a week of freedom! I'm just glad that Dennis and I have the same time off.

We've chosen not to leave the country, so we've spent our first three days off eating out, watching Scarface, Batman Begins, Dark Knight, and new episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm and Entourage, grabbing drinks at a local bar, baking cupcakes, and going on a Han River boat "cruise"/tour in Seoul (with Missy and Brianne). We were planning on heading to the War Memorial Museum in Seoul today, but Dennis called the Tourist Info Line to find out what time the museum closes today and they said, "It's actually closed every Monday." Dennis was not too pleased about that, but thank goodness he phoned before we actually got there. We've both been before, separately, as we didn't know each other then, but it would be nice to enjoy it together. I'm sure we'll end up there before our vacation is over. Free admission! Asa!

We're also going to the Sheraton Grande Hotel in Walkerhill, Seoul to have the buffet dinner there. One of Dennis' students gave him two gift certificates (valued at $110 CAD) for the buffet as a gift before summer vacation! Asa! He also got Davidoff cologne, which smells great, but I much prefer the gift certificates!

Pyeongchang wins 2018 Winter Olympic bid!... finally

It was announced July 6, 2011. They lost the first bid to Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Olympics and the second bid to Sochi for the 2014 Winter Olympics. Third time's a charm, I guess.

Never heard of Pyeongchang? Me neither, until I got here and saw the news.

It's been a long time coming. Congrats, Pyeongchang!

migraines & monsoon rain

It's monsoon season here, which of course means rain, rain, rain and more rain... mixed with humidity. I thought I needed rain boots here, but really, it rains so much and it's so warm that wearing flip flops are the most logical things to have on your feet. With boots, you don't want to wear socks because it's so warm and it rains so much and so hard that you end up getting water in the boots. With flip flops, sure your feet get wet, but it's not cold so your feet don't freeze. When you get in the house you just need a towel to dry your feet.

Now, with the humidity index so high, which means hot and sticky, you have the air conditioner constantly on and off. On when it's so humid and hard to breathe and off when it gets too cold. So both at home and at work I'm constantly hot and then cold, back to hot and then back to cold and so on and so forth. Not to mention that I haven't been drinking enough water to compensate for the dehydration that occurs in my body when the air conditioner is on. I think this combination of factors is what triggered my 4-day long migraine. I had to take one afternoon off from work to go to the doctor because it got so unbearable. The intense throbbing, nausea, loss of appetite, and general loss of interest in anything that wasn't sleep.

I thought it may have been the start of another sinus infection, but at the doctor's office he probed my sinuses with the endoscope and found nothing going on. Oh god, he stuck the camera so far down and so far up I thought I was going to vomit all over him. It was such a horribly uncomfortable feeling! Before the endoscope probing, he took super long tweezers and stuck this cottony material dipped in some liquid super deep inside both nostrils, it was horrible! And I had to sit for 5 minutes in the waiting room with this stuff stuck up my nose. I kept trying to make Dennis look inside my nose to see if he could see them, but he refused to look. Haha! When the doctor finally took them out and started using the endoscope, my tear ducts immediately acted up and I starting tearing up so much the nurse gave me kleenex.

Oh yeah, I also had Dennis clean out our air conditioner filter to see if we had mold or anything which may also be contributing to my ailments. The state that our filter was in was just disgusting. I don't think it has ever been cleaned since it's existence. The thing was solid black! I don't know how any air got through it at all. But thank goodness that's cleaned out. I also cleaned our electric fan because that was getting disgusting fast, too.

So, lately I've been feeling not quite so great.

Side note: the day after my doctor visit, Dennis found this article about "air conditioningitis" in the Korea Herald.

Happy North America (minus Mexico) Day BBQ

Last Saturday, Mariko and Brandon (Dennis' co-workers) invited people over to have a joint Canada Day and July 4th celebration BBQ on their rooftop.

The Friday night before the BBQ, Mariko and I went over to Heather's apartment (another co-worker of Dennis') to make baked goods for the BBQ. Heather and her husband, Luke, live in building B of our three-building apartment complex (Dennis and I live in building C). The boys went over to Mariko and Brandon's apartment over in Seohyeon station, a couple stations away from us, for another poker night.

Heather and Mariko made a six layer rainbow cake for the BBQ and red, white, and blue July 4th cupcakes for their kindergarten students. Oh, and they were nice enough to make Canada Day cupcakes for their 2 Canadian co-workers (Dennis and Jerry). I made Dennis' infamous chocolate chip banana bread muffins. Dennis brought our oven over to Heather and Luke's because they don't have one. It held up very well through our 4 hours of non-stop baking.

I really thought I screwed up the banana muffins, but apparently they were quite good. I'm not much of a chef or baker, I leave that to Dennis, but I felt like a moron going over to Heather's while she and Mariko baked and I did nothing but play with their dog, Rusty. So I decided to suck it up and try to make the muffins. I didn't follow the recipe completely correctly, but they managed to turn out well despite my screw ups. Phewf!

I had to leave early because I was coming down with a cold. A few of my students were sick and of course I managed to get slimed. And by leaving early, I mean 2am. Heather and Mariko were baking until 3:30am!

The BBQ was a good time. It was warm and humid out, but not unbearable. On the menu: costco hot dogs and hamburgers, Mariko's pasta salad and grilled veggies, spinach salad made by John (a friend of theirs), 6-layer rainbow cake, my mini chocolate chip banana muffins, and yummy cheese spread on crackers that I brought last minute. My only complaint was with John's spinach salad. My portion had a big, fat live caterpillar in it. A few minutes later Brandon found a second caterpillar in the serving bowl. Yick!

After the BBQ, a few left and the rest went into Mariko and Brandon's apartment to play a new board game that Luke introduced us to, Settler's of Catan. Not my kind of game, but it was interesting. Dennis and I had to end the night after the first game because I was still feeling under the weather.

i've been too lazy to blog

That and I've been busy with a lot of marking, evaluations, homework plans, lesson plans, and life in general.

Let's see.... the highlight of this past weekend was going for quite yummy all-you-can eat at the Todai restaurant down the street (care of Dennis' awesome boss) and going to Coex in search of rain boots pour moi. The search was unsuccessful. I guess I just have to look on ebay for some Hunter boots that way, but by the time they get here monsoon season will be over! Ugh. I started my search too late. :(

The weekend before that, we went for a bbq down by the Tanchon river in the Migeum section with co-workers of mine along with their friends. That was good times with good peeps.

In between all that, Dennis and I ate out way too much during the past week and a half. We ate out at the East Indian place we love so much (Thandi), went for all-you-can-eat Korean bbq (Buri Buri), and had some Mexican on the second floor of our building (Burrito's and Bowls). Oh, and we also tried out this Korean restaurant the serves seolleongtang . Although quite yummy, I chose to eat mul naengmyun. And due to the warmer weather, we indulged in quite a few 50 cent ice cream cones from Lotteria.

Good food makes me happy, so it's been a pretty good couple of weeks.

Canucks didn't win the cup

so a bunch of idiots started rioting and destroyed downtown Vancouver. Brilliant and double brilliant.

This is all I really want to say about that.

Not angry anymore - this post will come off as bitter, but it's really not meant to... I'm just too lazy to edit it to make it sound more positive and gracious =D

My co-worker, Katie, borrowed her boyfriend's car and I was able to hitch a ride with her (along with Lindsey and Donna) to and from our overnight Ocean World "workshop". Friday, we left our area for Ocean World at 6pm and got to the resort/water park at around 8pm. We had a weak ass dinner in a fancy restaurant, which is not even worth describing. It was pretty embarrassing walking into the fancy restaurant in our after-work teaching/beachwear outfits. It would have been nice to get some sort of schedule detailing what the heck was going on and what the heck we were doing for this workshop, but then that would have made too much sense. Oh wait, there was a schedule. It was posted on the teacher's board... IN KOREAN! Hmmm.

After dinner we all gathered around some tables outside in the courtyard and had our "workshop". The president said a thank you and enjoy yourself schpiel (in Korean), which we found out was nice when translated for us, and the vice president explained more about the Open Classes we're going to be having in 2 weeks. Open Classes are when the parents come and watch us teach. It's weird. After that we just started drinking and drinking and talking amongst ourselves. The Korean teachers and Foreign teachers were all pretty much segregated, it was a little ridiculous. It is what it is. They wanted to speak their mother tongue, which is understandable.

We then headed to the norae bang (karaoke room) in the resort, which is an obvious given to have in a resort in Korea. We danced and sang with the Koreans for a bit, then Katie, Brianne and I proceeded to our room to get some sleep, but Lindsey peer pressured us into getting our own room so that we could sing English songs. We were convinced and ended up staying out an hour longer.

Our rooms were brand new and beautiful, and the view was great as well. I'd love to stay there again with Dennis or a bunch of friends, but it probably costs a fortune.

We got up at 6am and left Ocean World soon after that. We skipped out on breakfast, which started at 7:30 because we just wanted to go home. Maggie ended up snagging the last spot in the car in the morning as we were getting ready to leave the room.

Thanks to Katie and her boyfriend's car, I was able to get home in time to watch Game 5 of the Stanley Cup. And WE WON!!! Vancouver beat Boston 1-0. So we're up 3-2 in the series. One more win and we have the cup. OH MY EFFING GOD.

i'm so angry!!!

I can't watch Game 5 of the Stanley Cup finals on Saturday because I'll be at a stupid workshop for work!!!!!!!! Of all the days that this had to fall on, it had to be on a day that the Canucks have the possibility of winning the cup!!!!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

Big Lebowski night

Heather and Luke (Dennis' co-workers) invited a bunch of us over last Saturday night for their Big Lebowski night. They have a big white screen and projector, so they invite people over all the time to share in the joy of their large, awesome "home theatre". It's quite nice and the quality is really good.

The first time I watched the Big Lebowski, it was hyped up way too much for me, so I was pretty disappointed when I finally saw it. This time around I expected it to disappoint me again, so to my delight I was pleasantly surprised at how funny it actually was. There were a couple other people there who hadn't seen it, so I told them not to let the hype of the dedicated night heighten their expectations. When it comes to movies, there's nothing worse than having a movie hyped up so much that your expectations are set so high, and really all that's left is room for disappointment.

My verdict: The Big L is a cult classic that shouldn't be missed. But don't let that affect you in any way if you haven't seen it! ;P

got my cord!

I'm not sure how long it was sitting in our mailbox because we hadn't checked it in about a week. I thought since it's a package that we'd get a call when it arrived, but it turned out to be such a small box that the front desk/security dude just slipped it in our little mailbox. Oh well... I got it and I'm back up and running! And the best surprise is that it's not a generic adapter, it's an actual Apple adapter! It's not brand new, it's used, but I knew this when I bought it on ebay and I don't care because my laptop works again! Plus, it only cost me $17 as opposed to the $120 I was prepared to pay for a brand new one through Apple. I should give the company a good review.

That's all.

Watching The Hangover 2 and so far it's pretty funny.

Game 2 win!

Dennis, Jerry, and I went to Rocky Mountain Tavern in Itaewon this afternoon to watch the game, which they were showing at 1pm. The game was already over and done with by then, but we stayed away from Facebook and the Internet so as not to spoil the outcome for ourselves. When the 3rd period ended in a 2-2 tie, I just couldn't help myself, I had to check if we won or not. I quickly checked Facebook and got my fix... and a happy fix it was. I really didn't need to check FB because Burrows scored after 11 seconds in OT. Quickest Stanley Cup finals OT win I've ever seen. It was awesome.

The bar was pretty full, but it wasn't as packed as I thought it would be. There was another bar in Itaewon that showed the game live, at 9am, but that was just too early for us. We won, that's all that matters!

Dennis and I wanted to pick up a couple of $25 Canucks jerseys to wear for the game, but the guy was charging $35 and wouldn't budge on the price, so we just walked away. We were wearing our Canucks shirts and I had the old-style women's jersey, so no biggie.

Game 3 is on Tuesday here while I'm at work. Bummer. I wanna go home to see us win the cup, dammit!!!!

P.S. Is it bad that I want the Bruins to win game 3 so that we can watch the Canucks take the cup on home ice in game 5 on Saturday here?

last weekend and this coming long weekend

So we all have this coming Monday (June 6th) off for Memorial Day here in Korea. It's only one day, but I'll take it!! Our plan? Sleep in as much as possible. But that's gonna be hard to do if it's sunny and nice out. But we're trying to save as much money as possible, so we won't be doing anything too crazy.

This past weekend was really nice. Friday evening was spent at the all-you-can eat bbq place (again) with Dennis' co-workers. I arrived late because I wasn't hungry at all when they were all heading over, and I was super bloated and crampy and just felt like an enormous blimp as it's my "favourite" time of month. Arriving late was nice because when I got there the meat was all cooked and ready for devouring! We all (minus 2 who opted out) went for a drink and darts at a bar after dinner at some bar near our apartments.

Saturday was spent lazing about, until Dennis got antsy. So we went to Migeum (the area where I get picked up by the shuttle bus for school), to pick up some stickers for my kids (I'm so nice - haha). For some reason I can't find a decent (cheap) stationary store in our area that sells stickers. We then went to Ori (1 subway stop from Migeum) to the HomePlus to buy some much needed whole wheat bread, steam buns, and bagels (wow, carb city!). Once home, we scrounged for something to eat in our tiny kitchen, and I watched Pretty Woman while Dennis played around on his laptop.

Sunday we decided to go to the Express Bus Terminal subway stop to shop around for some art in the underground shopping area. Our apartment walls are screaming for decorative companions. Boy, was the underground shopping trip ever a bad idea that day. It was really hot out and the place just turned into a massive can of sardines thrown into an oven! We had the hardest time trying to find the tiny art shop - more like cubicle, so we gave up due to claustrophobia, heat exhaustion, and pure frustration (mainly on my part). When we got to street level, we regained normal breathing and decided to look for the French village that we tried to find the last time we were in the area. After a bit of walking, questioning our sense of direction, and of course frustration (mainly on my part again), we finally found it! It's called Seorae Village. If you asked me for directions on how to get there again I wouldn't be able to if it meant saving my life. But dammit, we got there! It was very cute. It really did kinda feel like we were in a different country. We stopped at a cafe for a drink, which apparently was much needed. I felt like a different person once I finished my green tea latte smoothy! The frustrated grump in me was gone.

We ended up finding the park in the village that Dennis read about. It was like finding a hidden gem! It was such a quaint and calming place. If it weren't for my damn stupidity in choosing the most painful sandals to walk in, we would have walked all around the place, but we cut the park stay a bit short to head home. However, once we left the park we were taken directly to the National Library of Korea! I couldn't pass it up. But we were very disappointed because once inside, we couldn't browse the collection because we needed a library card to get passed the gates. At least that's what we saw people doing. The sign said we didn't need a membership to browse the materials, but I was way too tired to be misunderstood by a worker there to ask what the protocol was, so we just headed home.

Back in our area, we decided to have dinner at Quiznos (after I went home and changed into flip flops, that is) and ate outside on the Quiznos patio. I think everyone and their dog was out on every patio on our street that day.... it was really nice. Ugh, we did not want the weekend to end!

I think we might head back to the park in the French village again and have ourselves a little picnic this long weekend! That is, if the weather permits.

Please remind me to wear more comfortable shoes!

STANLEY CUP FINALS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Holy geez (that was for you, mom L'Heureux), the Vancouver Canucks are going to the Stanley Cup finals!!! It's only taken 17 years! Hey, we'll take what we can get.

The sucky part about this whole this is that I'm in friggin Korea while this is happening!!! Argh!!! We'll likely head over to one of the Canadian bars over here to feel the spirit. Hopefully we can catch a weekend game because with the time difference we're usually at work or sleeping during the games. Ugh!


GO CANUCKS GO!

Did I tell you...

I joined the gym? I hate working out, but I'm a chubby piece of poo right now so I have to do something about it rather than complain about it all the time and not do anything about it.

For 3 months it costs 170,000 Won, which is about $150 CDN. But they gave me an extra month free because when Dennis signed up there was a promotion and that's what he got. The promotion was over when I signed up, but Dennis was able to get me the extra month free. My guess is cuz he's white, and they do anything for whities here! Hahaha.

The gym is on the 3rd floor of our building so it's super convenient and I can't use the excuse to skip a workout because the gym's too far away. Damn.

So far, I've just been doing cardio because I'm too lazy to do anything else, but I have to start doing some weights to up my metabolism... cuz God knows that's gone down a steep, steep hill! I should also start doing crunches... summer's coming!

Side note: Korean male meat heads are an interesting species.

Dennis' 31st

Last Friday was spent birthday shopping for Dennis' birthday, exchanging gifts at the department store, and packing for our "camping" trip/"Best Kid's workshop".

After work I took the subway straight to the Lotte department store to search for a gift. I only had 20 minutes if I wanted to have the gift in time before Dennis got home from work at 7. I ended up getting him a couple of shirts from Hazzy's (a Korean name brand that's grown on me). Korean's pronounce it "haejees". I actually say it this way, too, because I have no idea how to pronounce it in English.

Once home, Dennis was surprised by my gift and we soon found out that he's apparently not a Large (he's a medium back home, but I went up a size because I know Korean sizing is tiny). He's an XL in Hazzy's sizing. We went back to Lotte to get XLs for both shirts and he also want to exchange the clothes he got for Teacher's Day from the parents of one class. They got him a Ralph Lauren shirt (in pink) and khaki shorts. A nice $220 gift. Crazy. Anyway, he left Ralph Lauren with the same shirt in green and a black t-shirt. He got cash for the balance remaining! Cash! We thought about returning it all and taking the cash, but he felt he needed nice shirts that he wouldn't normally buy for himself. We also tried to get his new watch sized, but we were silently rejected by the watch staff who spoke zero English. Yeah, he got a hundred dollar watch from his boss. What the heck! Hagwon bosses never buy their staff anything. Dennis scored with this school.

The Ralph Lauren shorts and shirt.

The Lloyd watch

After all that we watched Modern family episodes and started packing for the "camping" trip.

thanks.... you're welcome

May 15th was Teacher's Day here. Since it was a Sunday, we got gifts on the Thursday and Friday beforehand. And for the ones who forgot, we also got gifts on the Monday following. Before coming here, I was really looking forward to Teacher's Day because I knew we were moving to the wealthiest neighbourhood in Korea, so obviously we'd be getting insanely expensive gifts! However, the Korean government managed to pop my hopeful bubble. Apparently, because of a few recent bribery cases the government sent out letters to all schools telling owners not to allow parents to give teachers cash, gift certificates, or expensive gifts.

Last year, one of my co-workers told me that she got $600 worth of gift certificates! And one of the ex-staff members at Dennis' school was given $1000 cash! But his boss didn't let him keep it. I think the cash was returned to the parents. At least, I hope it was returned and not pocketed by the hagwon owner! I've also heard of teachers getting hundred dollar to thousand dollar designer purses. Crazy. But nooooooo... the year that I come is the year they crack down on the gift giving. I'm not complaining. Really, I'm just sad that I missed out. Don't get me wrong, I still received gifts, just not extravagant, over-the-top, expensive gifts that you'd expect from parents living in our area. Oh well, there's always Christmas and graduation! Keep your fingers crossed for me ;)

Here's what I got:

L'Occitane "velvet" hand cream... Oooooooo

Assorted rice cakes (a big box for all teachers, from one set of class parents)

Potted ribbon flower, which is actually a pen!

Beginner's calligraphy pen from Germany

This is from Kelly, not to Kelly. Apparently this 7-year old has her own name stickers

Mary Kay sunblock

Bag of mini Snickers, Korean red ginseng, and Bvlgari perfume

Korean red ginseng. Good for increasing brain power and libido!

Bvlgari Omnia Green Jade eau de toilette

Cake box!

Sweet potato, vanilla, blueberry, chocolate, and strawberry!