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.