Author: Sarah Gourevitch

So I turned 41 a couple of weeks ago. What? What? Wow. 41. Definite reason to PAR-TAY!

I organized a little birthday shindig at a Mexican food restaurant in Dunsan, Don Enrique. Now it’s not my Tex-Mex, but it was good. If you’re wondering what Korean Mexican food looks like, here you go. Notice all the cabbage…

I had a really good group of friends show up. I am definitely blessed in the friendships that I have made here in Korea. Honestly, I was a little worried before moving over here if I would make some good friends. I didn’t need to worry at all. Thank you God!

We paid 30,000 won for an hour and a half, but the dude kept giving us more time. And more time. And more time. We got there I think at 9:00. At 12:20 am, he gave us yet another hour. But it was after midnight, and we all had school the next day. We probably could have stayed there another 2 hours for free. Oh well. There’s always next time! And yes….there will DEFINITELY be a next time!

Bola and I loved the cherry blossoms so much that we decided to go to Kaist University on Sunday to see the cherry blossoms. We had heard that it’s a fabulous place to see them.

I’m going to apologize up front for the amount of pictures, but I just couldn’t help it. I was SO overwhelmed by all the beautiful cherry blossoms. My camera was SO happy that day!

We met near the subway station and started walking toward Kaist. We had to cross this huge bridge.

As I was standing up on the bridge, I looked around at my gorgeous city and realized that I am so grateful to have been placed in Daejeon. I was sad at first when I got my placement, but I can’t imagine being in any other city in Korea. Love Daejeon!

What a cute little munchkin!

Walking along the rive to get to Kaist. It was SO pretty!

She was posing for her daddy. Aww…

Check out all the “snowy” cherry blossoms on the ground.

Wanna camp out at the university?

We just missed the Cherry Blossom Festival by 30 minutes.

I got out my prime lens to take some pictures, focusing on the aperture. What do you think?

A little girl playing baseball with her daddy. So sweet.

Hey! There’s an Olive Garden!

Crossing the river

Can you see Expo Park far off in the distant land?

Yes, that dog’s tail is bright blue. His sister’s tail was bright pink.

When we finally got to Home Plus, we saw that they were having a big flea market in front. There was mostly children clothes and toys.

The strollers in Korea are so clever during the winter with their clear protective plastic.

This Home Plus was huge!

Pork & Beans for almost $3.00

Children’s clothes in Korea are SO stinkin’ adorable!

Oh. My. Gosh. SOOO adorable!

Of course you want matching undies with your honey, right?

So I was taking picture of adorable children’s clothes, and this cutie-patootie came up to me and pointed to her glittery shoes. She was so cute and loved to pose for the camera.

Bola wanted to go to Ali Baba’s since I had talked so much about it. We went all the way over there, and sadly it was closed. Boo.

Rodeo Street

Matching couple shirts. Awww….

Matching undies with your honey!

I had to go to downtown and took some pictures along the way.

In Daejeon, you see gardens everywhere. I think people just find plots of land and start a garden.

My neighborhood. I LOVE that you can see mountains where I live.

My street. Again…the beautiful mountains. Can I bring them back to Texas with me? Please?

Gardening in her little garden

I believe these are called tulip flowers. They are so pretty.

Daejeon is big into planting flowers and making the city beautiful. I like that.

“It’s Daejeon”….the city’s slogan.

In downtown…called Dunsan

To cross the street at this major intersection in Dunsan, you have to go in the underground tunnel. There are often vendors down there selling clothes, socks, bags and purses, and vegetables.

Look! You can buy a waffle from a van!

At the women’s hospital

I see Mini-Coopers all over Korea. I sure did enjoy mine. While it lasted…

After Dunsan, I took the subway to the Chungnam University area to go to the Cherry Blossom Festival. I decided just to go by myself so I could enjoy the day leisurely and take tons of photographs. The weather changed all of a sudden, and it got cloudy. Bye-bye blue skies. Hello gray ones. However, I think it’s beautiful. This river runs throughout Daejeon, and you often find walkers and joggers along the river.

In Korea, boyfriends treat their girlfriends so sweet. They even carry their purses for them. Do you see the guy in blue carrying his girlfriend’s purse?

And the 80’s have officially come to Korea. Oh yes they have…

Welcome to Chungnam National University!

Ahh…a cute Korean couple. Korean couples always have to be touching each other somehow. It’s rather cute and sweet. Makes me want to be part of a couple.

I didn’t know where to go, so I just followed all the people.

You know there’s a festival in Korea when you see food and balloons.

Cute couple selfies

It was gorgeous. Cherry blossoms were providing a beautiful canopy to walk under. And it was literally snowing flowers everywhere.

So I’m walking along by myself and see this tall dude. We see each other and smile. He yells “Hey!” and waves. I yell “Hey!” back, and then go over to him. He asks where I’m from, and I say Texas. He gives me this big high five and says he’s from Louisiana and is so excited to meet a fellow Southerner. Then some EPIK friends come up as we’re talking, and it turns into one of those awesome “God incidences” where He just lined everything up at the right time. It was pretty awesome. Definitely plan on getting together soon! 

These are some of my EPIK friends that I ran into…Jenny, Elizabeth, and Bola. We ended up hanging out together, and it was wonderful!

I’m all a.out the fun photographs, so here we go with the jumping picture!

I just LOVE my camera!

The “landing” picture cracked me up just as much. Their facial expressions are priceless.

It looked like it was snowing. Literally. Those aren’t dots on my lens. Those were cherry blossom flowers “snowing” all over us. Beautiful!

So I know I took A TON of photographs of the cherry blossoms, but I just couldn’t help myself. They were so beautiful. Do you agree?

Bola and Elizabeth eating Korean corn dogs….corn dogs with french fried potatoes on the outside. Korean “fair” food at its best. I haven’t tried it though.

Check out the boyfriend sticking his booty out so he is on “level” with his girlfriend. Is that cute or what?

The university had several statues on their campus.

In Korea, it is popular to get letter jackets for your university. Yes, I know these just happen to be maroon. I think it would be awesome to get one of these for my college, the best, the one and only…. Texas A&M University. I wonder if they would do that. What do you think?

You have your major at the bottom

This is called the “remake of the Mona Lisa”…um ok. Doesn’t remind me of the Mona Lisa. But that’s just me…

Yeah, so we didn’t check out this Nude Castle. However, it makes for a good pic!

Texas Western Ice Bar! Of course, I had to take a picture! And was Marilyn Monroe a Texan?

After the festival, we decided to go to a coffee shop and warm up. It had dropped several degrees and had gotten quite cold. The weather reminded me of Texas weather.

Hope you enjoyed all my photographs of the cherry blossoms!
Angela

On Monday, we got a new soap on a stick. What an exciting day!

On Tuesday, we had another dance party with Mina and Seora. Jin Ju told me that I have good dance moves. Woo-hoo!

Since I can come up with cheezy songs to help teach kids English, I’ve been given the task of creating songs with each lesson for my elementary students. I really enjoy doing this…it makes me quite happy. Wonder if there’s a way I could market this…

I have come up with several so far. I want to figure out a way to record them with my camera and upload them to my Mac and then edit them with iMovies. I haven’t tried or figured it out. That’s on my list of things to do!

Sometimes, I wish I could take Seora home with me. I just adore her and Mina. Last week I saw Seora out in the courtyard in front of our school. I said her name, and she runs/skips/hops over to me with this huge smile on her face. She takes both my hands and just holds them while smiling. She does this pretty much every time she sees me. I’ve never had anyone do that. Man, I feel loved. Hoping I can bottle some of that and take it home with me.

And now…for the absolute BEST thing that happened last week…in fact, it was one of the THE best (if not the best) things that has happened to me at school this year…
I always start the class off by singing the songs I made up and going over what day it is and the weather (yes, it gets VERY boring doing this 22 times a week). After chatting for a bit, I played the sing along version of “Let It Go” for my middle school students. My new co-teacher, Jin Ju, came in at the middle of us all singing along. Then she plays it again. I thought it was another sing along. Nope. Just for me to sing by myself. They start clapping along while I sing. When I hit the big note, they start cheering. Then they all shout “encore” afterwards. Wow. Oh wow. I am SO incredibly happy right now. You have no idea.

I just love this sing along version!

I had that same class today, and they begged me to sing it again. However, I have a cold now so it wouldn’t have been pretty. Maybe next class!

I have had a super busy week. I LOVE the fact that I had something to do every single night last week, with all different people. It makes me feel like I belong here. Like I have found great friends, people that truly care about me. It’s a really good feeling. Hence, that’s why I haven’t updated my blog. Sorry folks!

Last Friday night, Julie and I hung out. She moved back home this past Wednesday to help take care of her dad who is sick. She was my closest friend and neighbor here in Daejeon. I knew she needed to go home, but I sure didn’t want her to go. I knew I would miss her terribly. So I wanted to hang out with her as much as possible before she left. We went out to dinner, went shopping at our little jewelry/socks/hair accessory place called Naughty Cat, and then went for Tea Lattes and dessert at Green Brownie. Check out one of the yummy snacks we found!

Last Saturday, Julie and I decided to take a walk and explore some of the trails around our area.

And we stopped and exercised on the equipment.

We went up and down hills.

Love spring in Korea!

And the mountains in the background…

You can garden wherever you find a little plot of land.

You can find trash anywhere…there is no particular rhyme or reason to it.

Need a broken chair?

Or a suitcase?

We felt like we were in the middle of a landfill.

Love the Konglish!

Boys on their skateboards…

Even the little ones like their fur.

This picture was taken when the sun was setting over the mountains in my neighborhood. Beautiful.

Last Saturday night, a big group of us went to Ali Baba’s Treasure to say good-bye to Julie. Who would have known that I would move to Korea and discover that I love Indian food? I wasn’t expecting that! Their food is SO good! I am so going to have to find a good Indian restaurant in the DFW area.

Patrick and Melissa

Alicia

Then we went to Santa Claus, a funky little pub.  Of course, Alicia and I took some fun pics.

Everyone left except for myself, LaToya, Julie, and her co-worker, Hyun. He took off, and we didn’t know where he went. He came back with this sweet cake from Paris Baguette to celebrate Julie leaving. How sweet was he?

He even brought a candle.

On Sunday, I went to church. A girl from church invited us over to her place for coffee cake. We had a great time just chatting. Then Saree and I went to Johnny’s Pub for some great pizza while sitting in camp chairs. It was so good!

On Monday, Julie and I met at Home Plus and then went to grab a bite to eat. I’m sure going to miss meeting her at Home Plus and just shopping and chatting.

On Tuesday, Julie, her co-teacher, and I went to Raracost for some good Italian food here in our neighborhood. I let Julie choose the restaurant since it would be her very last dinner in Korea. She left Wednesday morning. Sad face. Major sad face.

On Wednesday, I met some girls at the awesome, amazing, wonderful Rio de Janeiro Brazilian restaurant. There is a buffet and also meat that they bring right to your table. Corinne, Julie’s replacement, surprisingly arrived in Daejeon after several days of orientation. I invited her to come with us. She’s from Ohio and has never been abroad before.

On Thursday, I showed Corinne around my neighborhood and Home Plus. Check out what I found!

Sadly, they don’t have my size. Boo.

Then I met my co-teacher, Jin Ju, for dinner. I love her even more now. She insisted on paying for dinner. I found out some things about her: she loves Twilight, her favorite food is meat, and her favorite thing about teaching is vacation. She also loves my singing voice and dance moves. She’s wonderful! 

On Friday, my friend, Emily, came over to my neck of the woods. We went out to dinner and then went to our favorite norebang. We LOVE singing together at norebangs. 

Can you tell some of the songs that we sang?

She spent the night, and we had a fun little slumber party. On Saturday morning, we watched Steel Magnolias, made brownies, and painted our nails the Korean way! 

On Saturday night, I hosted Games Night for some friends at church. We had THE best time! Emily taught me how to make Crack Dip and made me promise that I wouldn’t tell anyone the secret family recipe. Crack Dip is SO good, and I am SOOOO making it again and again! It was a huge hit! We played Drawssip aka Telephone Pictionary and Spoons. Then we went out for a late dinner at Kingdom. Yum!

Inga kept going back for more Crack Dip. I think she even licked the bowl!

On Sunday, I invited Corinne to church with me. After church, Corinne, Saree, and I went to Kraze Burger for dinner, and then Saree and I went to go see the movie, Noah. I liked it, even though it was extremely different than the Noah story in the Bible. Saree and I knew that it would be different though. In fact, she shared a great article about it. 
http://www.relevantmagazine.com/culture/film/hollywood-noah-and-creative-libertys-gray-areas

Now, it’s Monday. And I am finally resting. I caught a cold or something, and it refused to go away, so I finally went to the doctor today. I don’t know what I have, but the doctor had me do a nasal wash. Never had that or even heard of that before. My nose feels pretty clean now!

I’m posting another blog about my highlights at school. Love you guys and miss you tons!

Here is a little bit about my week…

1. There are certain students at my school who make my heart smile. Deksu is one of those students. Every time he sees me, he smiles really big and says, “Hello Angela!” He loves to sing and says, “I can sing good!” And he always tells me, “Good job, Angela!” when I sing in class. He can always make me smile. I am grateful for students like him.

Now about these next two pictures…Seora wears jeans that are too big for her. So after jumping over and over again, her jeans fall down. In the middle of her dancing, she stops and does a little jig to pull her pants up. It was the funniest thing! We could not stop giggling. Love that girl.

Mina doing her famous move. I just love watching her do this move.

Mina is a take charge kind of girl. I introduced them to the jitterbug, and now Mina loves to do the jitterbug with Seora. She totally loves to make Seora spin.

Here are a couple of our favorite songs to dance to…

I LOVE all of these songs, and every time I hear them I want to get up and dance.

3. I have been working with Kang on his ABC’s since I started teaching at my school. My co-teacher ordered some ABC books for him where he gets to write the letters and puts stickers inside. I always try to take it one step further. So I used my magnetic letters and had him make each word from the book. I enjoy working with him because he is always excited to learn things and get things right. Makes a teacher happy.

He did such a great job that I reward him with cereal. He LOVES it and gets so excited when he gets some. It’s funny how the little things make him happy.

Then we used the ABC Rainbow to practice our letters. Since he is visually impaired, the letters need to be bigger for him. He does an excellent job matching up the letters and finding the letters when I say them.

He was so excited when he finished!

I thank God that I found these magnetic letters at Home Plus. They have been a lifesaver!

4. It’s official. I LOVE The Office. Why have I not watched this show before now? It’s so funny and has me looking forward to the next show…which works out great because all 9 seasons are on Netflix. I am always amazed at what Michael Scott will do next (how does he still have a job?)…and Dwight of course. Love it! I have had A LOT of desk warming time, and I have thoroughly enjoyed watching all he episodes. I look forward to watching them! 

I am up to Season 5 now. So who are your favorite characters?

5. A couple of weeks ago, I posted on Facebook a picture of this short dress/long shirt that I had found on the streets here in Daejeon. You will often find people selling fruit, clothes, tools on the street. It was suggested that I buy it. So I did. Tony the Tiger better watch out. I think this might make me feel a little sassy. ROWR! My friend suggested that I take it to a seamstress and have them take off the turtleneck and turn it into a V-neck. I quite like that idea and totally plan to do it.

6. My closest friend here in Daejeon is leaving me. She is going back home to help take care of her Dad who is sick. She leaves on Wednesday. I KNOW without a doubt that it’s going to be difficult. We may not go out and party, but we often meet up for dinner, or Starbucks, or even going to Home Plus. I am going to miss her terribly. She, however, has introduced me to Tea Lattes, which I have discovered that I love. I love chai tea tattes and regular tea lattes. This might become a bad thing since there are about 8 coffee shops in my neighborhood, including 2 that are on my street. 

Last night, we met for hotteok, THE best thing to eat in Korea, and chai tea lattes at Starbucks.
Hotteok is a yummy, delectable treat that tastes like state fair food. It’s fried dough filled with a yummy sugar mixture. Oh. My. Goodness….it is good. And I am totally going to learn how to make these at home. Yum. Yum. Yum.

Then we went shopping in the neighborhood at our favorite little socks, phone cover, jewelry, hair accessories, etc shop and at GS25, Korean’s version of 7-11. We found some dried squid that we could have had for a snack. Yuck.

My roommate, Angelica, and Julie came to visit me in Daejeon a few weekends ago. I took them to Eunhaeong-dong to go shopping. They of course loved it. It’s my favorite area in Daejeon.

Our first stop was T-Shop.

We just HAD to try on hats and take fun pictures!

Then more shopping!

I LOVE the men’s fashion here.

With Angelica…I missed her terribly!

Love those Korean clothes with wonky English.

Need any sparkly boxer briefs?

LOVE this place!

At the famous bakery in Daejeon, Sung Sim Dang

Look! You can wear pajama pants while riding a motorcycle!

Whoa! Check out those heels! Women wear heels like that often here.

Tomato – one of my other favorite shops

Check out the interesting English shirts…

I have a confession to make. I LOVE jewelry. I have acquired quite a few earrings since I have moved to Korea. I was tired of digging through my box of earrings to find matching pairs. So I found a craft box and organized all my earrings. Yeah! Now, I can find easily find them!

I have my “other” blog (aka my teacher blog) on bloglovin, so I figured it was about time to put this one on bloglovin too!

If you don’t already have bloglovin, I highly recommend it. It’s THE easiest way to keep up with all the blogs you read. They send you an email with all the new blog posts.

And….it’s absolutely FREE!

Click the “follow me on Bloglovin” on the right hand side of my blog to get started.

Hope you’re having a great one!

I had a 4-day weekend and decided to just live in the moment and fly to Japan. I am SO glad I did it.

I flew into Osaka and then took the train to Kyoto for 2 nights.

You could buy a homemade lunch right on the street.

Nijo Castle

Sorry. You know me and dog pictures.

A Chinese parasol tree – they were exposed to the atomic bomb

Nishiki Market – this one part was dark and closed, and I was worried that everything was closed.

But then I got to this part of the market, and it was bustling with people and fun shops.

Doggie shirts

I found this awesome vintage thrift store that was recommended in the travel books. I loved it.

Look at some of the awesome treasures that I found!

I LOVE scarfs, so I bought a beautiful vintage scarf.

Claire’s!

Next stop….Osaka!

I “heart” markets in foreign countries.  Love, love, love them.

So when we heard that Chiang Mai has a huge market on Sunday nights, I was all over that.  They basically shut down the street and block it off from cars.

This was the regular part of the market, and we weren’t even at “the” flea market yet.

Now we are in “the” Sunday night market, inside the gates.

You’ve got your one-man band…

And your blind band…

Anyone want a gritter tattoo?

Sadly, there were blind people and mentally challenged people begging for money.

I bought this little guy, and the guy who was selling them was so cute.  He put the animal in a bag with his head peeking out so he could see out.  Cute or what?

This little dude played the ukulele and hoola-hooped.

Tentacles… yum!

There were many places to get a massage.

They love dogs in Thailand.  Look!  I could have gotten a little dress for Missy.  But I chose not to.

Well, looky there…it’s Hitler McDonald.

It was SO crowded!

Learning how to make a hat…

Oh, how I wanted some elephant art.  But it wouldn’t fit in my suitcase.  🙁

Black jelly

This little girl had a powerful voice…and was wearing a lot of make up for her age.

Guess I won’t be going here!  Only the Dutch, British, and French are welcome.

Trying to get a tuk-tuk to go home.  It took a lot of fanagling.

When we got back to the resort, we sat and chatted with the owner.  She is a hoot at night because she is usually a tad drunk and regales us of interesting stories, including telling us about her girlfriend.

Bridget fixed us some hot chocolate, which had chocolate bits….the chocolate bits were very strange…like bits of chocolate cereal which got very soggy, and I couldn’t finish it.  Yuck.

Looking at these photos really makes me miss Thailand.