had it been another day i might have looked the other way

Hello!

Christmas is getting closer and closer.. which means so is our break!! And we are soooo excited!! We are thinking of going to Busan, Korea for the weekend of New Years! Bsan is in the south at the beach! Hopefully it will work out! And our trip to Japan is in a month and a week! I am so happy that I will get to see Elijah... and Japan of course!

Katie and Jen came to Seoul for the weekend and we had such a good time! I was so happy to see them! We had lunch at the bulgogi restaurant, the one Heather and I ate at our first day in Korea. Then we hng out out at the apartment and Chinchu met up with us! After that we went out for awhile and ended our night at noraebang... or karaoke for those of you non-Koreans! It was unreal singing to Weezer songs with HP, Katie and Jen... when I closed my eyes it felt like being in the cube singing Weezer on Rock Band! I also found out that Rachael is planning on joining us in Korea! Very exciting!

I am really looking forward to having Christmas! On Christmas Eve Jen, Katie and Chinchu will come back to Seoul so we can all spend Christmas together. That will make it much easier on us being so far away! I know i will miss being at Aunt Sharon's on Christmas Eve and at Granddaddy's on Christmas day! I will miss watching the boys open presents the most! I miss those little boys. I talk to Seth the most and he is the only one that just about bring me to tears when I talk to him! The other day he was telling me about his birthday and how he would be five, then six, then seven, etc. So I told him he was not allowed to get any older and he said, "Anna, you can still hold me when I am five!" I need to give that little boy a BIG hug! The time difference makes ot very difficult to talk to friends and I miss my friends so much! Well, there are lots of people I need hugs from! I just make my kinders hug me all the time! Luckily they are little and still love hugs! One of my little boys, Jack, cried last week and it broke my heart!

We went shopping this weekend in one of the outside markets. I really like them! All the carts sell the same things but I still look at all of them! It is strange for it to be so cold outside and still be absoluetly surrounded by people shopping! Anyway, I don't have any new pictures of Korea to put up, but i have some pictures of all of us this weekend! And you can see my new short hair! Miss you all!!

Love!! Heather and Chinchu at karaoke!!!

Jen, Katie and Me!! Reunited!!

This is for Carly! I am being sweet and Chinchu is being mean, but we both miss you sooooooooooo much!! Love you sissy!

Outside market at Myeong-Dong

This is me and Jen at lunch!

i look around, leaves are brown, and the sky is a hazy shade of winter

I know I said I would do this last week, but... well, I'm me! But I am doing it now!!

We has our first real snow!! It was very exciting! But It was gone by nightfall! We had a really good weekend! Friday night we chilled at home and decorated our apartment for Christmas! AND we talked to jen!! Saturday, we finished our Christmas shopping! We went to Itaewon, which is a super touristy part of Seoul... with tons of foreigners. We shopped for a couple of hours and visited the Hard Rock Seoul. Then Sunday we went to Starbucks to read and watch it snow! Then we went to a DVD room. For 10,000 Korean Won (about 9 bucks) you can rent out a private room and a DVD. They had a ton of really good movies to choose from... even some movies in Spanish! So that was fun!

Not much else has been going on... Well, I got a haricut. And I mean a haircut,,, I don't have much more hair than Ali! The picture I gave the hairdresser had longish hair with long bangs... my hair it short! With actual bangs, not just the swoopy kinf I always have. I was horrified at first, but it is kind of growing on me. I mean, my hairstyle was probably all the rage in.. 1942 maybe? We'll see. I am kinf of scared for Mama and Daddy to see it!

Well, I hope you all are doing well! Hopefully you will be getting Christmas Cards in the next week! I got a card from Ray, Stacy and Connor today and it made my day!! (THANKS!!) So, send me Christmas cards!

Oh, and I am kind of bummed because Elton John and Billy Joel are touring together and they will be in Atlanta in March! What a rip! They will probably come to Seoul the week after I leave!

Love, love, love!!!

Me at the Led Zepplin bar!!!

Heather and eating Thanksgiving Dinner with chopsticks!

Thanksgiving in Korea! Chopsticks included! Although, we had Hoegaarden and champagne and pringles (courtesy of Scarlet!) at our dinner!

This was the dinner we made! Chicken, Mac and Cheese, mached potatoes, sweet potatoes, sunchips and pringles!! The green bottle is Soju... that was a gift from Cinderella!

Our dinner companions! Cinderella, the director of our school, Heejoo (julie) the teacher who is moving to Canada and Scarlet!

I took this at the Hard Rock! You know how I love my Fleetwood Mac! Oh, and I no longer have hair this long!

Our Christmas decorations!!

time to play b-sides

Sorry I've been so terrible at updating! I knowe this would happen though. I'll try harder!

Things are still going well here! We were really busy last week because we had finals. We spent two weeks making tests for all of the classes. Now we have to make report cards, but then things should be pretty easy at work. Julie is gone now, which is really sad. The new teacher is Melissa... she seems pretty nice. Also, some of the classes have changed a little. One of my classes now has eleven kids... I know, I know, its really not that much. But I am assuming it's easier to control a bigger class when you speak the same language. So, this class is pretty big. Each class room accomodates 9 students and a teacher so we are squeezed in. 5 of the kids were kids I already had.. they just combined two of the 3p.m. classes, so 6 of them I have never taught before. They seem pretty good though.

We are starting to get excited about Christmas here! There are Christmas decorations and music everywhere you go, so that feels like home! We were hoping to go to Thailand during our break, but with all the protests going on there it looks like we will be staying here. We are actually not that bummed. A break sounds nice! As long as we stay somewhat busy so we don't have time to get sad. We have eleven days off of work!!

My old roomate Jen is now in Korea!! And Katie should be here in the next week! That is so exciting! I can't wait to see them! Jen called tonight and it made me so happy! Heather and I are currently in the process of decorating our apartment for Christmas and we are excited about doing it! We are coloring and cutting and pasting like kids!

Well, it is getting very close to my bedtime so I will leave you for now... with pictures!!

love!

The view of Seoul from Namsan Tower at night!

Namsan Tower

This is a vietnamese dish from the restaurant that Heather and I always go to! It is so good! And sooooooooo spicy!!

Merry Christmas!!

Heather and I hung out with Chinchu!! Chinchu is Carly's friend from back home who is living in Korea now!

I actually have some pictures of our Thanksgiving dinner! That was very interesting! They are still on my camera though, and I am tired. I will post them tomorrow!!