body painting, teacher beautiful, and the art of the pinky swear

I frequently have trouble deciding what to say while opening a post. I don't like to jump from "hello" right into our recent happenings without a delicate segue somewhere in between. Because I am struggling, that was your "hello" and I'm afraid there may be no delicate segue, so here goes nothin. 

August has one good day left in her and I'd be lying if I told you I wasn't happy that's all she's got. August in Korea resembles summer heat and humidity somewhere like Abu Dhabi, Africa or..ok let's be real...South Florida. September is right around the corner. So is Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. You guys know what Christmas means don't you? You don't?! Christmas marks one whole year and back to the States for us! But let's not forget about our pit stop/vacation to Australia along the way. 

Last weekend we visited Daegu for an International Body Painting Festival. We hooked up with friends of ours that moved to Korea a few months before we did and it was good to catch up with them. The festival was pretty cool, but we were bummed we couldn't get half of our faces painted or our whole body for that matter. Ha. I kid. But really, for an international body painting fest they had less than pleasing body art available. Either way, it was cool to see some of the crazy costumes and paint. 

I realize I haven't mentioned my little kiddies or everyday life lately, after all how could I? July was sensational with Mom and Angela visiting followed by our trip to Thailand and the posts had to follow suit. So I've posted some photos of precious little korean kids that I'm sure you'll appreciate (you're welcome) and I'll enlighten you with the weight of the pinky swear in Korea. 

I'd like to first tell you the story of Ryan Lee and "Teacher Beautiful." My class now has 6 children. Yes, you read correctly, 6 children- who understand only bits of what I am saying- all under the age of 5. There are 4 boys and 2 girls. Alice and Sally have become rather competitive for Lia Teacher's affection and compliment me on a daily basis about how pretty or beautiful I am. But let me tell you, the other day took the cake. Ryan Lee, the only one out of the four boys started saying, "teacher beautiful" to me about 4 days ago. He saw my reaction and  flew with it one day after he began saying it. Let me explain. 

For the past 6 months, whenever I reprimand Ryan Lee he promptly cuts me off at the end of my sentence to say, "I am sorry teacher" in a very cute/weird tiny Korean munchkin voice that I really wish you could hear. Sometimes over and over -with a stutter. Until the other day when I was asking him to sit in his chair/stop talking/stop making snot bubbles/etc. when instead of saying, "I am sorry teacher." he said...., "Teacher beautiful." Can you believe it? I mean honestly. This kid has been saying sorry for the past million years in kid time and he thinks he can just call me beautiful and everythings ok? How do they learn so early? :) Well Sally wasn't having that, and she told me one millisecond after Ryan Lee that, "Teacher so so so soooo beautiful princess Belle." (Belle from Beauty and the Beast, who is my favorite Disney princess and just so happens to be Sally's too.) What a rough life I live. 

Now let's talk about the pinky swear in Korea. For those of you unfamiliar, the pinky swear symbolizes a promise, bond or agreement, usually between two children, most likely small ones. In Korea, the pinky swear is the end all be all. Don't believe me? When Smile, my worst kindergartener, is being super duper bad, I bust out my pinky and make him promise to stop doing whatever he's doing. He immediately gets very serious at the sight of my pinky and no longer continues the behavior the rest of class. There is a bank by our house and the advertisement/art on the whole side of the bank is someone holding their pinky up. As in "We pinky swear you can trust in this bank." Just the other day I went to pick up some new running shoes the asics lady told me would be there in a week and were not. I was extremely disappointed and she assured me they would be in by Tuesday. I did not believe her. She put up her pinky finger in the air to reassure me. I could not believe it. 

I hope you enjoyed your summer and are ready to get into the autumn swing of things. We sure are. We missed so much about being home and with you for the summer, but have many great memories that will last a lifetime.

As always, really missing you. Really really.  

P.S. Aren't the kiddies growing so fast?!

Alice!

Jong Hae. My new student, he started a couple weeks ago. Cute enough for you?

Jong Hae and Smile.  Smile doesn't have a perma anymore. 

Lia Teacher and Sally.

Kids in the library. 

Brad and Ryan Lee.

Sally. She got a haircut a couple weeks ago and looks older :( 

Before haircut. Sally, Lia Teacher, Smile. 

View of a good sunset one night from out apartment roof.

Mike, Jessica, Brendan. Body Painting, Daegu.  

Fantasy makeup and costume.

Below are two videos of Ryan Lee. Him and the other kids were joking about how old Alice is. Sally and Smile were saying things like, "Are you 124 years old?" Check out Ryan. 

Home

Missing you terribly. That it all. 

MomAngelaKOREA

Over a month has passed since our last post! July brought us Mom and Angela and Thailand. Fastest and best month since we've arrived. Sifting through 1,000 photos and picking out favorites is a chore I am grateful to have. Let's break "Mom and Angela" and "Thailand" into two posts shall we? 


Mom and Angela arrived and were soon on their way in what seemed like the blink of an eye. Korea graced them with the hottest most humid weather of the year, along with some torrential downpour (while hiking a mountain) but fun was had by all and I missed them before they departed. 

Beomeosa in Busan. 

Temple By The Sea in Busan

Beomeosa. 

Beomeosa in Busan. 

Mom reading to the kiddies. They loved her. 

Sunrise Park, ten minutes from our apartment

Mt. Naeyeonsan, hike where it was pouring the whole time. This mountain is alread full of waterfalls, and the entire course turned into a waterfall bathtub, we were sloshing through over ankle deep water the whole way, it was awesome. We didn't take as many photos as we'd like due to the downpour. 

Naeyeonsan

The waterfall was sooo loud and gushing, Angela's camera got waterlogged and froze a this point. 

See I wasn't exaggerating! Look at the steps behind me!

Beomeosa Temple in Busan 

Busan Aquarium 

Temple By The Sea in Busan

Bukbu Beach, mile and a half from the apartment.

The kids were so excited to meet them.

My favorite. Miss you. 

Thailand

Not only did July bring us Mom and Angela, but also a week vacation from work!!! They headed back home and four short days later we left for Thailand, helping ease the sting of their departure. 

We've had our Thailand trip planned for a while now, and the beauty surpassed our expectations. Though we took several planes, trains, busses and boats to arrive, Koh Phi Phi was well worth the trip. We spent our first night in Bangkok followed by a trip back to the airport to fly to Phuket, one night in Phuket, and from there our favorite most anticipated part of the trip, Koh Phi Phi. 

Phi Phi is an island in Southern Thailand comprised of a main large island with 5 smaller ones surrounding it. You can only reside on the main island, the others are huge mountains and cliffs with caves, beaches and hanging rock you can only access by long tail boat. 

We stayed in a northern, less touristy part of the island, which was a superb choice with nearly untouched scenery. We took a long tail boat out to different islands everyday for snorkeling and sight seeing. We ate, drank, played and relaxed the vacation away. 

View from our balcony .

Pool. Ocean. 

Home for the week.

This cat was taking a harddd nap.

Near resort. 

Outside resort. Longtail boats behind me. 

Must have fruity freezy drinks!

Where we stayed, view from the water. 

Nice to eat dinner with feet in the sand. 

Cave in Phi Phi Ley. 

Under hanging rock. 

Maya Bay, Phi Phi Ley Island.

Who's that stud?

Phi Phi Ley.

Phi Phi Ley.

Phi Phi Ley.

Maya Bay, Phi Phi Ley.