Sevice!

There's an amazing phenomenon in Korea where free stuff is just given to you as you purchase something. It could be more of what you just purchased or something else entirely. Since the store's staff usually explain this as "service" it's is usually called this affectionately by all those who are privy to this perk. One of the most common is when very random products will be taped to the outside of other products in order to entice the consumer into purchasing said product. Here's a classic example. Whole and All cereal (Love it's whole grainy goodness, but it's a bit sweet) with fluffy winter socks taped to the outside. It just so happened that I always need more socks, so of course I picked this cereal! Genius, Korea! Genius!

Starting Over... Almost

Here is evidence of my first failed attempt at leg warmers. I'm still going on leg warmers, but I need to add more stitches as I want them to be comfy and baggy, not tight. It was a bit hard to just rip out all the stitches, but I know I'll be happier with the end result this way. :( WAAA!!!

SALSA!

Gail and Jason always keep up in the know about different things going on. They are a couple that we met at a church in Seoul after attending only twice. We've kept in touch with them and have hung out quite a bit. They let us know about a salsa night in our area. It was at the Mosaic Cafe which I've been to many times with both Mitzi and Naomi. It's a cafe backed by a Life Church to be a community space for fellowship and outreach tool. I think it's a great idea and there were quite a few people in attendance at salsa night. See for yourselves.

When I got wind of this, I was so excited. Salsa, without the bar! It was so great. One of the best parts was that there was a full lesson with guys and gals steps for the whole night. Curtis and I finally have some moves to show off! We'll have to practice though. Send Curtis all kinds of inspiring messages on his Facebook page please! Here are the pics!

My B-Day

I had an awesome birthday this year. It was a bit of a surprise to me because lately I've been missing close friends and I thought it would just feel like any other day without them. Well, I'm happy to report that it didn't! It was on a Thursday this year, so I had to work, but so many people made a big deal of it and I felt very loved.

The celebration actually started on Wednesday. If you didn't already know, we have two groups of students. One group comes on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and the other group comes on Tuesday and Thursday. On Wednesday many students wished me a happy birthday all day long. One class in particular was super excited to celebrate with me. They wrote a huge Happy Birthday message on the board, hid to surprise me when I walked into class, and gave me some amazing gifts. I got a pencil case shaped like a sandal with some new supplies in it, a soap with Snow White (it came with a note explaining that it helps prevent the H1N1 flu!), and a flowering plant. It was so touching and I could tell these students really put a lot of effort into their gifts and they all wrote me nice cards. I'll take some pics on Monday and add them.

On my actual birthday, I volunteered at the YMCA as it was Thursday. The ladies I teach in the beginner class surprised me with, not one, but three cakes! It was completely overwhelming! I wish I had my camera there but I really wasn't expecting anything. My favorite cake was a blueberry angel food cake. Possibly the best cake I've ever had. We spent the rest of class just chatting as best as we could in Eng-rean. At the end of the class, one presented me with this basket of pepero! Again, it was all such a huge surprise.

Since I had so much cake, I gave one to the coffee shop owner where we have the Stitch N' Bitch meetings. I took one into work and shared it around with everyone, too. Many of the students wished me a Happy Birthday during the day, and after work all of our co-workers came out to a cafe for cake with us. We went to a place called I'm Home. It is now famous amongst us for its chocolate fondant cake. It's like a puddle cake, the middle is liquid chocolate and the outside is rich bittersweet chocolate cake. It's served with vanilla ice cream, too. Since I'd already had it (for our anniversary) Curtis and I tried the New York cheese cake. It was delicious too and a bit lighter considering that I'd already had cake that day!

After finishing our cake, we all headed to the Nore-bang. Teri sang Sweet Little Kitty, a Korean song that I like, and at the end of the night I was serenaded magically by Kate, who never ever ever ever ever sings at nore-bang. It was super sweet of her.

Yep, the birthday celebration continues... on Friday, we had the birthdays of the month party. Jina and I were the birthday people for this month so we got really nice gifts. I got gorgeous hand made earings, a travel toiletry bag, a passport and ticket holder, and a travel diary. The painting on the pasport book and diary is really famous here so it's a nice touch that it's Korean style.

Yep... it doesn't end! I feel so spoiled in how much time I got to spend with the people that matter to me here! On Saturday, the intermediate class at YMCA planned to take me out to lunch. We had shabu shabu or hot pot. It was amazing! I know it sounds like just boiled veggies in broth, but the stuff they put in there blew my mind! The whole restaraunt was also a buffet so you could keep throwing more stuff in your broth! We had octupus, crab, shrimp, beef, all kinds of green leafy veggies, oysters, squid, and some part of a male fish (I think it was a sex organ). I tried most of it except the fish parts and the squid and it was all delicious. After everyone was finished throwing the main dish bits in, they made juk out of the broth. Juk is rice porridge. It was the tastiest Juk I've ever had! I though it would be too mangles with all the different flavors, but it wasn't at all.

The rest of our Saturday was pretty relaxed. I watched episodes of "Flight of the Conchords" with Curtis. Oh, by the way, Curtis gift to me was the full first season of "FOTC"! I love it! Please check it out and let me know what you think.

In the evening we went out to salsa... but that's another blog.

Stich N' Bitch Bundang Chapter

So, I've become so involved with Stitch N' Bitch that I've actually started up a meeting in Bundang. There are three regular members including myself with about 7 others who will come occasionally as it works out for them. The other two ladies that come regularly both have daughters the same age. They came along to the last meeting and I had a blast taking photos and tickling them. Needless to say, I didn't get much knit, but I had fun anyway.

Oh, and the cold snap didn't last like I thought it would... it's warm out now! I might just take my bike out next week! :) YIPEE!!!

I'm happy to report that although I had a minor setback, I had my first squash lesson last Thursday! I though it was 20,000 won a month (about 19 bucks CAD), but as I went to sign up on Tuesday they informed me that it was actually going to be 41,000 won. With our tight saving budget what sounds like a little money actually puts quite a dent on our spending, so I had to reconsider and figure things out with Curtis before joining. I felt kind of silly, but I was so disappointed that I started to mist up when I was discussing it with the counter lady. I'm such a baby!

Otherwise this weekend, it's been a bit emotional. I'm missing friends from back home more than ever because my birthday is coming up soon and I'm not sure what to do. Usually going out with good friends is right up my alley, but I don't really want to organize something like I did last year. It was fun, but I had to go by 10 pm because the room was getting unbearably smoky. Anyway, I'm going to have desert and nore-bang with co-workers after work on Thursday and we'll see what happens on Sunday and Saturday just got filled... literally filled with random other plans. I'm sure I'll be too busy to remember it's my birthday! Does that mean I can stay 27? Lol...

Also, I don't want to mention details, but I've been feeling a bit down lately for other reasons too. Even though I'm working out and in the best shape of my life (hehehe) I still have some confidence issues to solve. Please don't use this as an opportunity to compliment me, that's not what I need. I just wanted to archive this so that when or if I'm feeling low again, I'll remember that it was just a time and that it passed. I'm confident that I'm riding the tail end of this tsunami as we speak. Please don't worry! :)

Cold Front Coming Through

I got up this morning and took my time getting ready. I already peeked outside to see that it was sunny enough to ride my bike, so I didn't mind leaving a few minutes late. I knew it was getting cold lately so I got a bit more bundled with a scarf and some mittens.

I get outside and my street seems a bit more chilly and I think about parking the bike and catching a bus. I decide that any good Canadian worth her salt could handle a chilly morning on a bicycle and head out on my way to the pool. I FROZE!!! It was so cold! The weather hadn't been that bad last week for sure. I even went for a run on Tuesday without too many problems.

Here's where it gets tricky. We already know from experience that when bad weather comes, it stays. Yep, winter has officially begun. This wouldn't be too bad except I've been doing so good with my running and staying fit. I have a solution though. I'm going to learn how to play squash! I'm pretty excited, but nervous, I've never played before. I get an instructor though so it should be interesting what with my amazing Korean skills (bah). Does anyone have any pointers for a beginner? Does anyone know any Korean vocab for squash that I should learn? I'll keep you posted on how I'm doing!

New Haircut!

So, I've decided to go short again. I've been thinking of it for a while and especially with swimming and running lately, thought it would be a good move for saving time in the morning and still looking like a million bucks. Whaddya think?

Happy Halloween!

Last Halloween, we had mandatory holidays which ended up being lucky because Curtis ended up going to the hospital. It wasn't a big deal, just something that was getting worse that he needed to get taken care of. Well... did we ever go all out this year! Check out our digs!!

We wore costumes to work on Friday and then after work went out to a pub in our area called Ole. It has a Spanish/Mexican feel with soccer player and flamenco dancer murals painted on the walls. They had a bit of decorations and we just chilled out and had a few drinks. Some highlights (in no particular order): Juliet using her finger puppets as good conscience and bad conscience all night, Dave winning a chugging contest and coming second in another, getting a door prize of a Scream mask, yummy appetizers, meeting Karen and Tim (a couple from Indiana who dressed up as cow people), meeting a confused and frightened Carrie on my way to the bathroom who suggested another public toilet as this one had a man in it, and generally having a great time.