i suck at updating.

i know i know... i suck at updating. but i will ease the sting with a multitude of pictures beginning with my ruby. 

ruby: kami teacher. when are you going back to texas?

me: oh not for a long long time. long time. we have almost an entire year together.

ruby: hoo-rah! that is an excited scream kami teacher. very excited scream. 

i love her. oh how i adore her, so! 

alright..welp, there's no secret here - i suck at updating this thing. life is moving in the fast lane here in korea. it really is. the weeks fly by and the weekends are spent discovering more of what korea entails. so here is a quick, in my kam-way quick, synopsis of the past two weeks.

FIRST: WORST BIRTHDAY PARTY I HAVE EVER BEEN TO IN MY ENTIRE LIFe. EVER!!!

i love korea. i do. but they do things ridiculous here. and the first birthday party is done up insanely. thousands of dollars are spent on the first birthday. my co-worker, jun's, son turned one a couple weeks ago and he asked us to go to his party. sara and i named him ben b/c we can't pronounce his korean name. all of my co-workers and directors came to support. here are a few pics...

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1. this is jun, his wife, and son, ben. they are all decked out!

2. this is un bear ( whom sara and i have deemed 'hannah' ) she is one of my co-workers daughters. she is two years old... and she certainly acts like a two year old.  but she is a doll. except when she brought me baby squid... where i did all but throw up in my mouth. DISGUSTING. 

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1. un bear (hannah) LOVED picking on sara. this picture was the highlight of my day. hahaha. look at the fear on sara's face!

2. this is the face off. hannah vs. sara.... look at hannah's tiny little fist. haha. she was precious! terrible twos... they ain't kiddin. haha. great entertainment! 

AND THIS...

was the worst time of my life. absolute worst. 

this crazy bitch (pardon the french... but there are no other describing words... trust me, i've thought about it) learned my name and decided she would try to drag me to the front of the stage. (where, mind you, 60 korean strangers were staring at me. so... she goes off in korean and then i think i hear my name. i look at sara puzzled b/c i don't quite understand why... and all my other co-workers didn't get it either. 

AND THEN... this crazy lady grabs my camera out of my hand, gives it to sara and literally drags me up on stage. ARE. YOU. KIDDING. ME???

so there i am... standing there...looking just as confused as the 60 pairs of strange korean eyes staring at me were... wondering what is going on. and the crazy lady says, "Sing Happy birthday!" so.. i'm thinkin.. eh, okay, i can sing that without a little embarrassment. so i sing, and then try to go sit down. but noooo. this feakin spaz grabbed my arm, stood in front of me, and told me to sing a pop song. i think she and i argued back and forth for around 3 minutes about how i was NOT going to sing a pop song. (the entire thing lasted 10 minutes. the longest most painful 10 minutes of my entire existence - NOT FREAKING COOL!!!) in the end, though, i sufficed with a christmas carol and made sara come up and sing it with me... to the room full of strangers... who were just as confused as i was.

i was pissed. that lady was crazy. literally. she was crazy. no one knew what to think of her and her retardation tactics of making me stand up there. i felt like an american puppet. sing american. dance american. make a noise american. not cool. NOT. COOL. AT ALL. i dreamt the following night that i pushed her down the stairs. that is how much i disliked that moment! she better hope i can't distinguish her one day from one of the other 150,000 koreans walking around.... 

moving forward....

this is yin sun si park. i think. one of the GOOD things that actually came out of that cracked out party, was that i had the opportunity to meet a band that has a studio here in town. where i was invited the following day to come record some music. 

 

that is the studio i record in. and there is me singing. haha. not the coolest of pictures.. .but remember i am not the one taking it! :) 

i think the best thing out of it all is that now each day i take drum lessons. so every day from around 11am-12:30 i take drum lessons. the guy in the picture - he is my drum teacher. but he also teaches piano and guitar... and it is his studio where it all takes place in. it's a pretty phenomenal place. it's so nice to be around real musicians here... i get free drum lesson and all i do is teach him english. i totally got the better end of the deal! boom-shaka-laka! 

TONGYEONG MARATHON:

 - since i did not get to tongyeong until early november, i missed the sign up period. i was bummed. i'm still bummed i couldn't share in that experience. but there is one in march, so i am awfully excited to attempt the 10k. (hoping i don't break my foot again... good ole' insurance if i do!) anyhow, all of our foreign friends (the actual americans/canadians) here were in it. two of them ran a 5k, two of them ran the 10k, and two of them ran the half marathon (around 13 miles). so sara and i went and cheered them on... with awesome signs..

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1. WE SPOTTED OUR AMERICAN (AND CANADIAN) FRIEND!!! they were so happy! we were so happy! out of the 1,000's of runners... we saw 'em! haha.

2. sara and i were excited to be around such craziness! 

now....

I AM A MILLIONAIRE... in won. 

 - i have never in my life seen that many 0's in my bank account. insaaane. ha. so in lieu of getting our first paycheck, we hit up some american culture - pizza hut. good times, good times! 

 

PEPPERONI PIZZA, BABY! oh man. after eating so much rice... my taste buds were in heaven! korean pizzas are quite funny... they wrap them in bows...easier to carry, i reckon. it's quite cute. i think america should do it... it made me happy. carrying my little leftovers like it was a present from santa. 

TRiP OUTTa town:  CHANGWON and hike numba dos. 

this weekend sara and i had the opportunity to get outta town for a day. our directors had to go to changwon to get some books, and they offered to take us and drop us off at the big ole' mall. my ears perked up at the first hearing of this... and it proved to be a wonderful wonderful time! 

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1. ANNE OF GREEN GABLES... IN KOREA?! really?! you KNOW it must be good then!

2. me and my fellow posse... all the little korean children and myself love to jump on the tigers... yes, i am very mature... i know. 

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1. my engagement picture to a sculpture man. oh yes. one day... FAR FAR FAR away.... 

2. i got ruby hooked on the chocolate chip fraps... her parentals will thank me one day.. haha

i didn't find much at the mall, neither did sara. but we DID find a starbucks (which we drank at twice) and a mcdonald's which i ordered a fabulous big mac at. oh such delight. it doesn't take much for me you know... just a small taste of america. though i haven't eaten mcdonald's in years back home... something screams 'DO IT FOR AMERICA' each time i see one.. ha

HIKE TIME. 

our director and his family go hiking each sunday. it was the same mountain sara and i hiked up the first time... but this was a direct route... instead of the 3 hours around the actual mountain that sara and i attempted. the hike was beautiful. i always have fun hiking and being in the mountains... my back isn't a big fan...but i enjoy it. so here are some pics of that...

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1. the view from the top. so beautiful. at 8 in the morning... in the freezing cold... totally worth it... maybe? ha

2. all in the family: my boss and his family. we love them to pieces. they have been so good to sara and me. they really have. i don't think i am nearly as deserving as such great people to be around here in korea. Jesus really does look out, mayne. he really does! 

 

you know... when you hike up a mountain... everyone wants to jump rope. yep. 

jump.

jump.

jump.

so yes, as you can see... the time is going fast. it seems so unreal to think i've been here over a month already. time really does fly here. i think working in the evenings really makes it better. i couldn't have picked a better place to be in than right here with all these people. this year is going to rock. christmas is around the corner and sara and i will be going to seoul. uncle j is on board a big methodist church there, so i can't wait to go there. it's the largest methodist church in the world (i think). that's pretty stellar. christmas eve will be spent watching all the christmas movies with the other foreigners drinking eggnog in our pajamas, and then we head the next morning to seoul. we will also spend new years there, as well. 

let the fun times keep on rollin'! 

i am a lucky girl. life is wonderful. christmas isn't done up here real big, so it doesn't make me feel like i'm missing anything back home. however, if anyone feels like sending me something nice.. say... mac-n-cheese or something tasty... please feel free to! haha. 

much love chum-a-roos,

kam-dogg