Cambodia Pics

Here are some of Siem Reap, Angkor Wat, and Kratie.

Pics from Thailand

Just pictures for now, but I am keeping a paper journal and will type it out on our long upcoming train journey to Hoi-An. I'll keep them in order and upload by location to make it easier to browse.

Right now we're in Can Tho, on the Mekong River. We took a small river trip today in the afternoon and I already love it. I can't wait to see the floating markets tomorrow. YIPEE!! This feels like REAL Vietnam!

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.