Just Because I Miss Her..

Here are some pictures of Luna, with special appearances by Lila and Tootsie. 

Luna loves shoe boxes 

And her dinosaur Halloween costume.

The only place she could get away from Lila.

Tootsie's ready to go on vacation.

I'm Officially An Old Lady

Happy 24th Birthday to me! It sounds really weird to say that I'm 24, especially since I always feel like it takes almost the whole year to get used to your new age, and once you're used to it you go up a number. I think the only exceptions are milestone birthdays, like 16 (the age you can legally drive) 18 (the age you can legally vote) and the all important 21 (the age you can legally drink). I feel like after reaching those, there's no need to keep counting. Maybe, I should start boycotting now.

Ok, enough of the rambling, tonight was pretty awesome. J took me out for sushi, and it was fantastic. Afterwards, we came home for birthday cake. I have an intense love for cake. I think part of the reason I had gained weight when J was first in Korea was because anytime I was missing him, Jill would take me out for cake, haha. I'm not even gonna lie, I was kind of nervous about the cake he ordered. It was his first time ever ordering one (last year he made me order my own) and I was really hoping he remembered to get whipped icing, which he totally did.


So, let's talk about this cake, it was absolutely hilarious and incredibly sweet all at the same time. It definitely looks like something for a four year old, instead of a twenty-four year old, but I'm totally ok with it. I mean after all, this isn't the first time I've celebrated a birthday with something that is usually reserved for a child's birthday party, when I turned twenty-two we had a moonbounce party. Even the lady at the commissary thought the cake was for a small child haha. Apparently, J had ordered a super cute Hello Kitty cake, which left him feeling quite proud of himself since he knows my undying devotion to that little cutie, I mean he did take me to Hello Kitty Cafe over the summer. Unfortunately for him, after they made the cake they realized they
didn't have the little Hello Kitty to go on top, so they gave him a pack of Disney Princesses for free. I'm sure the look on my face was priceless when I saw the cake. I was also very surprised by the flowers and super cute bear dressed as a panda he brought home since he never buys flowers. All I have to say is well done, J. I couldn't have asked for a greater 24th birthday, I got everything I could have wanted, except for maybe a moonbounce. 

Who doesn't love cake?

Love it <3

And a little flashback to Moonbounce Spectacular.

Catastrophic Monday

So, today has just been INSANE. Like there are no words to describe it, so I'll just tell you what happened.


This morning I got up and turned on the bathroom light and somehow that knocked out the power in the whole apartment, but none of our fuses were blown. So, we reset them anyway and nothing happened. J finally walked to the management office and the man had to reset our main breaker outside the apartment. Then, I had to kill a huge spider that was trying to take over the bathroom so I could take a shower, and noticed that my light bulb is blown out from the stupid power going out. And I can't change it because I think it's some special Korean bulb.


A little while after that my stupid satellite went out because the sun was too bright, yet it works just fine during a storm (sigh, only in Korea). So, after that I decided to set the clock in the bathroom and dry my hair. Somehow while setting the clock I set off the alarm to my apartment (how was I supposed to know what the red button does and who knew I had an alarm) and I thought the sound was my tv going crazy.   Finally, I heard the security guard trying to break down my door to come in and save me. It took him 10 minutes to figure out how to shut off the alarm, so the intercom is yelling at me in Korean and beeping or something.


After all of this I make my way to the BX to Christmas shop with a friend, while we're walking in some lady sneezes on me. Seriously?! Cover your mouth. And when I was leaving some jerk stole my cab. Ugh. I'll be glad when this day is over.


Who knew you could have a terrible case of the Mondays when you're unemployed?

Just Horsing Around

Yesterday, we had our big trip with J's unit to a Korean Folk Village, which ironically enough was called Korean Folk Village. I was super stoked for this trip for a few reasons, the main one being that it was free, and the second one being that we could actually meet and hang out with other people he kinda works with. I mean all of our friends have either already left, or will be leaving soon, and with two years to go I see our time here being kinda lonely unless we befriend new people.


So yea, our trip started out kind of rainy, and by that I mean it was pouring out. Luckily once we got on the bus and started heading to our first stop it actually cleared up, and would stay that way until we came home. The first place we stopped at was Pyeongtaek Sea Port, we learned about the shipping industry in Korea, and even got to go on a boat ride. (Doesn't this sound like a school field trip?) Since it had been so rainy earlier they only allowed a few people to go on top of the boat, so you know I had to make sure I was one of them, and all I but pushed J out the door to reach those steps. =) 


After the boat ride we had lunch at a bulgogi house. This place was super cute, and like most Korean restaurants you have to sit on the floor. This place was different than others we had been too since the floor was actually cut out at the bottom so your feet had a place to go so it was like sitting at a table with chairs without actual chairs. Oh, and the bulgogi was amazing, as is typically the case.

Once we were done with lunch we went to a Korean Folk Village. I was so excited to be here because the place just seemed so interesting. Plus, there were horses, and you could ride them. I suppose saying you could ride them is an overstatement because you pay for your ticket and the man leads you around the track on the horse, but whatever, I was on a horse. Unfortunately, I have no actual pictures to commemorate this event because J had decided that his ice cream cone was way more important than me riding a horse, a horse that I named Mister Ed even though she was a female, but she liked her new name, and we bonded. After all of the excitement from the horses, we got to see traditional Korean performances, which included drums, a tightrope walker, and horse stunts. 

I'm On A Boat!!

I've neglected this thing for far too long. I guess I was worried that if I actually took the time to write something it would just turn into whining, but since I posted something complaining about how miserable the heat's been making me I feel confident enough to update my adventures now.


Somehow our Adventure Saturdays have turned into Adventure Sundays (I'm blaming the time difference and the whole being in the future thing) and this past Sunday we headed up to Seoul to ride speed boats on the Han River. Our latest trip was replacing the much anticipated trip to the water park which was rained out the day before. Damn you, Monsoon! So, we picked up two of our friends from the gate and made the trek to the Seoul. Once we parked the car we picked up some snacks and headed to the nearest train station to head to the pier. I'm not even going to lie, I was so nervous about this train thing because the last one we had to get on went UNDER the Han River. Um what? How can the subway go under the river? This thought had completely blown my mind. I mean I know there's one in New York, and there's tunnels and all in the states where you're actually driving under the water, but I just don't understand how it's possible. What happens if there's a leak? You're trapped and you die, that's what. Obviously we arrived at the pier safe and sound since I'm writing this, but still you never know.

Walking to the pier.

View from the pier.

So, once we made it to the pier we paid our 10,000 won each (which is roughly $8.48 thanks to my won to dollars app on the Bb for allowing to me calculate that so quickly) suited up in our little life vests and we were off on the boat. OhMyGoodness whipping around on that boat was so much fun. I wasn't worried about falling overboard and drowning one bit, that's probably more due to the fact that I'm a great swimmer. What I was worried about, though, was falling into that nasty ass water and heaven forbid that shit get in my mouth and on my face and whatever else. No ma'am, I was not feelin that. I'm not even sure how polluted the water is actually, but it's the fact that it's a river, I can't see the bottom of it, and it's in a city. I mean Korea has pollution from China rolling on in when the wind blows just right, so who knows. I'm just saying, I didn't avoid any and all contact with water from the Neuse River back home, to come to Korea and suddenly grow a third arm from a splash of water reaching me over the sides of the boat, and if said water got on my body, I was fully prepared to bathe in Bleach anywhere surface cleaner when I got home. Just kidding..or am I? On a similar note, I also managed to successfully avoid the Tar River in Greenville, during several Ecology labs back in the day.


So after our spin on the speed boat the guys that came with us decided they were going to go out on the jet skis. Obviously, I wasn't feeling that idea for myself since we just saw a girl return from her ride and she was soaked from head to toe. As it turns out, you couldn't actually drive the jest skis yourself, so you would be at the total mercy of the driver, and if he wanted to soak you he could. After waiting around for their turns, the driver (would they be called drivers, maybe operator?) of the jet ski set up another one at the end of the dock and just as one of our friends was about to hop on the back, the guy realizes he doesn't have the key. Unfortunately for him he was a little too late in his discovery as he started to drift further and further out into the river. 

Still searching for that key.

After a brief rescue mission by two of the guy's co-workers that was quite comical our friends finally got their rides and we headed to KFC. It definitely wasn't an American KFC, there was no mac and cheese, and no snacker. I did have a tasty bulgogi chicken sandwich, that reminded me of the bulgogi burger from Mcdonald's, except you know this was chicken.

Hot and Bothered

After walking around all day in the sweltering heat (maybe it wasn't all day) and coming home to this hot ass apartment, I've come the conclusion that my life somewhat resembles a Miss Goldilocks, from The Three Bears (I really hope that the name of that story). Only, there's no wildlife here, aside from Theodore, but there sure is a whole magnitude of weather that I feel I'm just not equipped to deal with. 


Remember, when I first got here and I complained about how freaking cold it was. And how being so cold is completely unnecessary and I don't know how people in Alaska deal with it on the regular. Oh wait, I do, apparently they hunt moose out of helicopters in order to avoid the cold just like that woman who was nominated to be Vice President (I refuse to to put her name on here). All I have to say is winter is too cold.


Fast forward to spring. Oh, spring, I used to love you. The weather was starting to warm up, cherry blossoms were in bloom, and yellow sand was in the air.  Ugh, yellow sand. I am not missing that insanity. I didn't think I was going to survive it. I thought for sure I was going to stop breathing in the middle of the night from how congested my nose, and even my lungs felt. I still don't think I'm breathing as clear as I used to now. All I'm saying now, is spring has too many allergens.


And now, here we are in summer. It's so unbearably hot. Korea needs to invest in cheaper forms of air conditioning, and that shit needs to be throughout the house. None of this single stand up unit mess. I need cold air in every room. And don't even get me started on monsoon season. It started raining last Thursday morning and finally tapered off around 2 am Sunday morning. I had never seen so much rain before, let alone that much rain without any thunder. It was so strange and so humid. The humidity was so bad, it felt like I was camping. Everything had an extra damp feel going on, and it was not pleasant. Let's just say our single ac unit has been getting a work out these past few days. I can't wait for summer to be over, I know back in the states I wouldn't be saying such things. My time would be spent lounging around the pool working on my tan and enjoying the sunshine. If it were ever completely sunny here I'm sure I could motivate myself to do take up this lovely activity, but alas that is hardly ever the case. Damn you, monsoon season! Can I just say, that summer is too hot, or would that be too redundant?


I'm really hoping that fall is going to be good. Here's to hoping for a cooler autumn, one that will be juuuussst right.

Love Locked

Saturday marked the first day of our four day weekend, so J and I decided that there was no other way to start it off than to take our Adventure Saturday trip up to Seoul. I had been dying to go to Seoul Tower since I first got here, and since our trip to the zoo was kind of rocky we decided from now on we would drive ourselves so we could do our own thing. Luckily for us someone had told J about a bus you could catch that would take you to some of the best tourist spots in Seoul. For 10,000 won (a little less than $10) you could ride the bus all day and visit whatever it is you want and catch another bus later on.


We immediately decided that our first stop was going to be Seoul Tower. Once we reached our stop we pretty much have to climb a mountain to get to the tower. I'm saying this hill is so steep, it was more like climbing up the wrong side of a slide. Once we were at the top we bought our tickets and headed inside to take the elevator up. I got completely distracted by this Hello Kitty game, so J decided to make himself useful and buy some snacks while I dug around for change to play. The game looked like one of those crane machines that you can find in Walmart that has all of the stuffed animals inside except it has the cute little Hello Kitty prizes sitting on shelves and you're supposed to knock them down with a stick. So yea, not like the crane machine at all actually. In the end I couldn't find any change so I could only stare at the machine in awe and try to knock down the cute little Hello Kitty prizes using my telekinetic powers. If only I really had them, I could've gone all Carrie on that thing; minus the pig blood, of course.

After I gave up on the game, we took the elevator up to the observation tower. The view from the top was incredible. It would've been a million times better if it wasn't so hazy out. I've come to realize that blue skies are a complete rarity around here, and it's an amazing thing when you actually see one. After we saw all there was to see, we headed back down to the second floor observation deck.

On the second floor viewing deck there's a fence that's set up around the perimeter, and this fence is covered with "Love Padlocks." This is why I so excited to visit the tower. There has to be thousands of locks hanging on this fence. Like any kind of lock you could imagine, padlocks, combination locks, bike locks.  The locks are linked together, and then locked to the fence to symbolize a couple's eternal love. After they're locked you're supposed to throw away the key, and they actually have specific places for you to throw them out, since metal keys aren't such a good thing for birds. J had joked that people who used combination locks wanted to keep their options opened, so if things didn't work out they were coming back to take their lock down. That boy is so optimistic. Ever since I found out about it, it's been my mission for us to put up our own locks, and so we did. =)

Our initials (of course someone had to have camo)

Our wedding date 1-1-09 (painted with nail polish)