Can't Rain on Our Parade

I apologize for the delay on posts recently. I've done some fun things since I last updated, so I'll tell you all about those adventures.

Last time I told you about my friend Tanner from America, who now lives and works in Hong Kong, so we'll go back to him for a minute.  We actually bartended together at TGI Friday's for almost a year before he grew up and got a big boy job in Hong Kong. I found out I would be coming to South Korea before he left though, so we often talked about meeting up when we were on the same side of the world. What a crazy idea right? Two friends working together in Oklahoma City, talking about hanging out together 6,000 miles around the world. Luckily, he had some vacation time and asked if he could come to Korea and visit for a few days!! I can't believe it worked out so perfectly. It was so much fun having him here. He's probably the bravest person I know. He moved to Hong Kong by himself, not knowing anyone. He's the only American at his job. He has been to Singapore and Malaysia by himself for vacation, and now Korea...what a brave person. It's one thing to understand that you're in a new place and know that it would be so awesome to explore and learn about it all, but it's another thing to actually venture out on your own to all these places. He has successfully done it a few times so I knew he could handle Korea. As I said before, we all met in Seoul that weekend, but when we left Seoul to come back to Gunsan for work, he stayed for a couple more days. I don't teach on Wednesdays, so he came down to my province and we went exploring all day! We took a ferry to Seonyu Island, which is about an hour away from Gunsan. Once we got there, we rented bikes and rode for about 3 hours. I thought there would be more hiking opportunities, but it was still a really beautiful place and I'm so glad we went. I can't wait to go back this summer and lay out on the beach! We came back to Gunsan and met everyone for dinner and went to our new Wednesday night hangout spot. It was such a fun day! The next day, Tanner went back to Seoul for some more exploring before heading back to Hong Kong. It was fun to be able to hear comparisons between here and Hong Kong. I'm hoping I can work my vacation days out and make my way over to his side of Asia before I leave.

Our Ferry! 

Tanner exploring an old abandoned boat.

My photography skills and camera don't do this place justice. It was beautiful. 

Water and mountains as far as the eye can see. 

The water was SO cold!!

Fast forward to Saturday. We knew it was going to be rainy, but we had our hearts set on the Nonsan Strawberry Festival. Nonsan is in the province right above us, about an hour and a half away by bus. We found it with ease, so with umbrellas in hand, we headed straight to the sign-up booth for strawberry picking! Fruit is very expensive here in Korea, so when we heard that we could go to a strawberry farm and pick and eat as many strawberries as we wanted, plus fill up a tiny box to take home with us, all for 10,000W (about $10), we knew we had to get in on it! It was a pretty cool experience and there were a lot of foreigners on our bus, so that was nice to hear English! haha We stuffed ourselves full of strawberries, then stuffed our boxes full of strawberries and got back on the bus to the festival. Once we were there, we walked around and checked out all the booths. They were mainly food (which we love..haha), but there was also a face painting booth and a few that were selling nick-knacks.  It would have been more enjoyable if it wasn't raining the whole time, but it was still really cool. I'm glad we got to go check it out. Also, if you've been following along in the previous posts, I went 4 for 4 on traveling on the weekends and seeing monkeys! hahaha They had an area set up with all sorts of animals in cages. It was actually really sad because the cages were tiny, but I saw another monkey...they must really love monkeys here. I can't even imagine what it'll be like when I actually go to a zoo. haha

My tiny box of strawberries! 

Fair food! Sausage with corn in it...on a stick. omg.

CORN!

Rain, rain, go away...

...another monkey. 

Sunday I went to church again with my co-teacher. I know I've said it 1000 times, but I truly believe Koreans are the nicest people in the world. The only ones that might be nicer are Koreans that go to church. lol These people are so sweet to me, it's unreal. I go to a Korean service, so obviously I don't understand a word that's being said, but it makes it all worth it when they go out of their way to find me an English/Korean Bible, or tell me how beautiful I am or how I have really nice skin (I'm not sure on that one...maybe I did my makeup well that day? haha Either way, I went with it.). They are just so sweet and welcoming to me. It's a great feeling. My co-teacher also has a sister about my age, who speaks English really well, so it was fun getting to talk to her all afternoon. Their mother doesn't speak much English at all, but she is still so sweet to me and made sure I was okay the whole day. If you're ever going somewhere for an extended period of time, I highly suggest getting involved in a church . It's a great way to be around people who care about you and want you to feel comfortable, which is nice to have when you're thousands of miles away from the other ones who do.

Now it's Tuesday and I'm not sure what our weekend plans are yet, but I'm sure there is a ton of fun to be had somewhere in Korea. Possibly a Cherry Blossom Festival or something Springy like that? Only time will tell. Have a wonderful week, America. See you all soon!

PS. I enroll for the Fall semester this week. While I was making my schedule, it was finally clear to me how close I am to graduation. I only have 18 hours left, plus my student teaching semester. It'll have to be broken down into 3 semesters, which sucks, but because of the types of classes they are I am not allowed to take all 18 hours at once. So I'll have two 9 hour semesters, then student teaching! Nine hours will be a breeze though, and will allow me to work a lot more so I can save up some money and hopefully not have to work very much during my student teaching semester (which is totally Fall 2014!!!) Sounds really far, but when I look at the very few classes I have left, it makes me so happy I could cry!  

I'll leave you with some cute pictures of my kids!

Some of my 5/6 grade girls! 

They took me to the candy store and to eat Ramen. So sweet! 

I also blew their minds by telling them I microwave my ramen in America...and eat it with a fork.

They just put really hot water on theirs and let it sit for 3 mins. Maybe that's the real rules, I'm not sure? But that's how we do it here.

crazy 2 grade!

Some of the cutest girls in Asia! 

Some of my 2 graders...so cute! 

I can't even imagine how obnoxious I'm going to be one day when I have kids of my own. I apologize in advance. You will probably want to delete me from every social media site capable of uploading pictures. hahaha Anyway, I think my kids are the cutest, so I'm going to keep posting pictures for you guys to look at. I also have the cutest video to upload, but it won't work on here, so I'll try Facebook!! Keep an eye out for that! 

-Kyla