A successful Birthday

Hello all.

I have been many places this past month, and I have many pictures to show you. I finally went to Geyongju, but that's going to be a huge blog post, so I'll save that for next time.

This time, let's talk about my BIRTHDAYYYYYYY.


As some of you know, my birthday last year consisted of working until 10 at night and then standing in the park with Korean Boy and his weird friend in a beanie who wouldn't talk to me because he was shy about his English.


THIS birthday, I decided to go back to Jinju with Korean boy and visit Weird Beanie friend and my other friends....er, friend.

What did we do, you ask?

Well...if you remember this time last year...it was the JINJU LANTERN FESTIVAL!!!!!

Yes, I dragged 3 Korean boys to a lantern festival with me.

They do whatever I say. o.O 

Anyway, look at the LANTERNS!!

A TREE!!

A HORSE!!!

A....THING!

An OWL!!!

POMEGRANATES!!!!

Then I started making them do POSES!!

WE ARE STRONG!

HUG THE BEAR!

uh...LIFT THE GUY!

 ...Then we were running out of ideas, as you can see, and left. 

Hehe.


 That was pretty much my birthday. Nothing else really eventful, but it was really nice. :)




Edit:

I forgot to mention how they surprised me with an ice cream cake right when we ordered food at the restaurant...so we had to eat it all before it melted and before our food got cold.

Forget the tiny pink spoons, KNIVES AND FORKS!! HURRY!!

And yes, we were successful in finishing it. :D

Postcards, fog, and castration.

Hello everyone!

 I would like to thank you all for the wonderful postcards.

Darcy says thank you, too. ^^

As you can see my collection is growing quickly. I strategically tapes them on the wardrobe...too high for Darcy to jump to them, and too low for him to grab them from on top:

After he pulled down all of my birthday cards and letters from students from last year, I have learned my lesson. 

Anyway, thank you all for the postcards (and keep them coming if you want). I will definitely going to use them in my after-school classes when they start. The students love seeing pictures of America. :)

Also, let me know if you want a(nother) postcard from me! I have lots...x.x

My days are dull recently, so it's nice to get mail. 

Summer is officially over, so the morning view looks like this: 

The sun still comes out in the afternoons though...so it's kind of like Washington right now. o.O 

Students are already bundling up for winter...it came fast last year, so I better be ready!

In other news, I had Gilbert fixed and he loves his cone. 

<3

One year in Korea!!!!

Hello everyone! I left Washington on September 6 of last year and arrived in Korea on the 8th. This being the 7th, I believe it makes the 365th day I've been in Korea!

Or at least close to that. We all know I can't math. Yes, math is a verb now.

Korean boy and I had a great plan to celebrate my 1-year anniversary with Korea.

I was going to take the subway after work, meet him in Seoul, and we would then drive down to Jinju to see our friends.


On Saturday and Sunday, we were going to explore ALL of Gyeongju, the number one historical site in Korea! I went there briefly once and saw some old temples and a large Buddah, but there is so much more to see!

I was very excited, and we were going to go rain or shine.

I even made a to-do list.


Sadly, it is not happening.


One hour ago I arrived home with a list of things in my mind: clean litterbox, fill cat food, take out garbage, buy snacks at mini mart, take taxi to subway.


When I opened the door, Gilbert let out a yowl and ran over to me. I thought it was adorable. He was so happy to see me!

Then I heard another yowl. Coming from the bathroom.

Darcy had locked himself in the shower. Again. I laughed at him and opened the door.

He staggered out. Literally staggered. Like a drunken sailor.

I panicked and called Korean boy, who called the vet for me and told him I was coming.


I then carried my 20lb cat (exaggerating?) three blocks to the vet, where a nice old man confirmed that his leg was sprained.

He then pumped Darcy full of pain killers, gave me a prescription for pills to give him, and I went home.


The pain killers then made Darcy foam at the mouth, and I spent the next 20 minutes following him around with a towel, cleaning his trail of spit.

I called Korean boy and we debated on whether we still had time to make it. Unfortunately I hadn't cleaned the litter box, eaten or anything, so we decided Gyeongju would have to wait. :(



I wrote many of you postcards!!! In some of them I mentioned how I was going to be traveling. Sorry, that is not happening anytime soon. >.<



And speaking of postcards, THANK YOU MOTHER AND FATHER AND ANIA AND GAIL! Those are perfect! My students (and co-teachers) are amazed to see pictures of mountains...they can't believe I actually live there! They think all of America is like New York city, so it's really interesting for them.


Anyway, I just wrote this blog in an attempt to distract myself from the fact that Darcy is sitting on my pillow, dripping his saliva everywhere.


Happy one year in Korea to me!!!!!!!!!

Hello, Darcy here.


I started my own blog. It is called Postcard Meows and there you can see all of the postcards I am sending to people.

 There are many still available. I'm going to send them all!

 And these are also REAL postcards. I just scanned pictures of them. Vic. That was a silly question you had. 



Anyway, if you want one of these REAL postcards, you can tell me which one you want, and I will send it to you.

Just email me at darcymeows@gmail.com.

 Or you could email Taren, too. If you want.


 But if you want a postcard you should send me one in return...




Also, Joyce, Shari, Mother, you already have postcards on the way! ^^
(Gail, I need your address...you too, Tallia. And Grandma. And anyone else who wants one. And Kaylee, I will write you one soon, but you can tell me which one you want! If you don't I will choose for you.)



Okay. That's all. I'm going to go kill the kitten, who keeps playing with my tail.

Meows.

Korean Textbooks

Every week I am to create three 1-hour lessons - one for all three levels of middle school. 

This wouldn't be a problem, however, this lesson must be based on a short conversation in the book. 

And often the conversations just don't make sense...

And they try to use slightly-outdated pop culture, which often falls flat....

Or it's just.....racist?!

Ugh. I have spent so many evenings staring at these books, completely at a loss on how to turn it into a 1-hour lesson. So, if anyone you know is thinking of coming to Korea to teach, WARN THEM. 

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go turn the phrase "I shouldn't have played soccer in the rain" into a lesson that kids who don't speak English will understand. :)

~ Postcard Exchange ~

Hello everyone!

Because I LOVE getting mail, and because my family SUCKS and sending me mail (thank you Kaylee, you keep me alive), I have joined a website called Postcrossing.

The site gives you an address to send a postcard too, and you are able to get postcards in return.

It's very fun!!


However, as fun as exchanging postcards with strangers is, I would love to get some from people I actually know!!


And I want to send postcards to you!



I think it would be really interesting for my students to be able to see postcards from around the US. They love to see pictures of different cities, landmarks, nature, whatever.


And postcards make really good teaching materials, too!


So, if any of you would like to help me out here...feel free to send me a postcard!

If you email me, I will send you my address.

And of course, I will send you a Korean postcard in return!



Help me out here...it's really fun to get mail!




And just in case you all hate me, you can send a postcard to Mr. Darcy and Gilbert instead!!

We want postcards, please! Meow! 

Email me for my address!!! Get my email from my mother (or facebook me)!!!!

I promised you butterflies...

...and here they are!!

In Victoria one time, we went to this really amazing butterfly garden.


This was nothing like that.


Korea doesn't have very many butterflies. It might have something to do with how we had a big war and burned up their entire country.


But regardless, the butterflies that are left are really pretty. ^^

Ooooh, ahhhhhhhhh.


....


Sorry. :/