Apparently there are tall Korean men!

Sunday we were very luck to be invited to head out on a road trip (or should I say bus trip) to Changwon with our friends Dani and Malcolm to go see a Korean Basketball game.

Since we are without a television and will be sleeping during the vast majority of the March Madness basketball games back home, we were determined to set out on this adventure and see some Korean B-ball.

We took an early bus to Masan and then took a cab to Changwon for the event. We stopped first at a big mall called City 7 for some coffee and bookstore browsing

This mall was huge, and was the mall that we had set out looking for at one time but was not found… It was really neat, an indoor/outdoor mall… it consisted of three domes with a few covered walkways and TONS of stores… this was much more impressive than the Coex mall in Seoul. This one too had a Huge bookstore as well as some clothing outlets. ( we will be going back!) We stopped in the Dunkin Doughnuts and had some coffee and waited for Malcolm’s friends Megan and Nick to come by.
Once they arrived (and we had a chance to take pictures with the large number of white tigers all around the mall outside)

We walked over to the basketball Stadium, which was next to a soccer stadium/ baseball stadium and one other indoor field. We got our tickets early ( as well as a few extra for some other people who would soon be joining us.)

The stadium was incredible, and out front was a very large paved area where you could rent roller skates, bikes and scooters to ride around on. With all the kids having a great time it was a bit difficult to make it to the ticket widow but we eventually did. ( Also got a picture of a Huge Robot thing riding a unicycle… no idea why!)

Dani and Malcolm

After getting our FANTASTIC seats ( really close to the floor) we walked back towards the MacDonalds and Quiznos for lunch. The others met us there, and we all chilled for a bit and had lunch.

With not too much time before the game was to start we walked back over and took up our seats right next to the court… we could see everything, even the sweat on the players.

Each team is allowed to have two foreign players on the team… Wow who would have suspected each team would have two Huge black players in addition to all the Koreans.

The Two teams playing were the Changwon “Sakers” ( pronounced like Lakers but with an S) and the Ulsan Pheobus, wow. We were in Changwon so we pulled for the Sakers (home court too, we just followed the masses)

They gave you really cool fan like signs, that you could beat on your hand to keep the beat with all the cheers ( which they did the entire game).

The view from our awesome seats!

Tall Koreans warming up for the game!

Korean Men can Jump!

The Mascot, some eagle thing.... he was funny though, and had lots of break dancing moves!

They also had a bunch of cheerleaders and special announcements ( none of which we could understand, but apparently quite a few people donated quite a bit of money, so that is nice.)

Someone was having a birthday too, which is why the cheerleaders have hats on!

The Fan!

I was particularly entertained by the Cheerleader's HUGE socks... I mean some of these girls were tiny, but why huge socks? Are cankles coming back in style?

Me and the boy enjoying the game!

The Half time show was my favorite, they had a Tae Kwon Do school do the performance, and they were AWESOME… huge age range of students, but they were all perfect… It was really cool to watch them do back flips and stunts and staged fighting.

The movement was set to music and so much fun to watch.

The game was really exciting, as the points stayed very close until the very end. The other team from Ulsan ended up winning, which was sad since we had been pulling for the Sakers the whole time… Oh well, we still had a great time, and got a cool fan/sign souvenir.

They rush the court in Korea too!

Final Score... so tragic, it had been so close until the last four minutes!

After the game we still had a three hour ride home ahead of us, so we headed toward the Changwon bus station…

The trip would not be without a few hang-ups… we missed the next bus to Tong Yeong by 1 minute, it was literally pulling away as we walked into the station (bummer) so we bought tickets for the next bus (in one hour) and went to get dinner at the Bibimbap stand in the bus station… it was actually pretty good.

Malcolm saw the bus pull up, so we made one last trip to the bathroom, and that must have been the most popular destination, because by the time we all got out there the bus was filled, and people were going to have to stand for the two and a half hour ride if they wanted to get to Tong Yeong…. Which we did, but not that bad…( but there was not even enough standing room for all four of us even if we HAD to take that bus)

So since we had wasted an hour, because Korean sell more tickets than they have seats, they just sell random amounts of tickets and you have to wait, so things can get terribly backed up and you can still miss your bus even if you buy your ticket in advance. we were quite angry, we went to get a refund for our tickets, so we grabbed a cab back to Masan, and took a bus from there, which ended up leaving quite soon after we arrived, and even better it took us straight to the Gohyeon bus station instead of us having to transfer busses at Tong Yeong.

We were cramped in the back of the bus, but we finally made it home.

Despite the bus fiasco, we had a fantastic time, and are now looking forward to the baseball game this summer were invited to.

After All that we came back to school on Monday ready to teach, and I found out from one of my students that apparently Joseph, Dani and I were all on tv here in Geoje... My student asked me if I was the one taking pictures of the game, because she saw someone who looked like me during the game... Pretty cool! I guess we are famous now!

Merry Christmas!

We knew the hardest part of christmas would be the part where we were not with our family and friends, but thanks to new friends, a mini tree and stocking, and a Baskin Robbins ice cream cake the holidays here were much better than we anticipated.

Our Mini Christmas tree, with gifts from our mom's back in NC, Joseph's mom sent the tree, My mom sent us mini stocking with small gifts inside! Thank you mommies!

Adam and Jennifer also helped in the Festive spirit because they left some fun christmas lights hanging around our doorway. They helped to put us in the holiday mood!


After spending most of the morning out with the co-workers we were pretty darn tired, but I decided to get a head start on some of the cooking...granted it was only for four people, but I wanted to make sure we had enough stuff to eat. I started on the deviled eggs on Christmas eve...

I had so much trouble peeling those darn brown eggs, I guess my mom is the best boiler because I used to be able to peel those eggs no problem, but this time for whatever reason, they were sticking to the shells.

And the only marshmallows to be had in Korea are multi-colored...this caused quite a few interesting rice krispie treat effects.

I pulled them out of the pot as quickly as they turned into a big burning green glob... I am pretty sure you should not see the hulk in your treats, but like Dani says" Hey it is marshmallow and rice, how bad can it be" and it was in fact pretty good despite being stuck to the pan for 20 minutes.

A huge crowd pleaser with the mashed potatoes.

Now my mom has always combined the corn and green beans, but we had a complaint, so from now on I have to seperate them ( but upon eating them the next night with leftovers, joseph finally proclaimed, Hey this is not so bad... Haha, Point 1 , Ali.

Here is trouble if I ever saw it, Malcolm in the hat, and Dani in the red sweater! Best that Cape Town South Africa has to offer!

The Table was set.....

Finshed close up of my horrid eggs, that smelled bad, but tasted good, thankfully.

Malcolm did the honors, and carved the chicken....

And the most fantastic Baskin robbins Ice cream cake you will ever lay your eyes on.

The ice cream cake was so fantastic, we had to let it thaw a bit, so Malcolm and Joseph picked out some awesome tunes.

Malcolm gave us a bit of education regarding some awesome South African and Korean bands!
Dani Trying to figure out if it was edible, which we hoped it was, because Joseph just bit off part of the houses chimney.

We finally cut the cake, it was a valiant effort by joseph, looked like the sword in the stone, or like the plastic knife in the frozen cake.

Four different flavors, Pistachio, vanilla with chocolate swirl, Chocolate and strawberry... It also had a section of rasberry ice cream... delicious.

But then....it started melting so we put it back in the freezer.

After Lunch we changes venues, and headed over to Dani's apartment, she lives like two blocks from us over here which is nice! Her christmas gift to herself was her Wii, so we ended up playing several games, with Joseph kicking the crap out of my Wii character, except in baseball, for whatever reason I was the Home run Queen, and he was eating my dust.... it was quite a battle of epic porportions.

And just because I think it is funny and so totally Korean, they have heaters that look like fans....this is Dani's heater... it has a huge bulb in it, and a reflective back that eminates the heat. Please excuse Joseph's big nose, it got in the way of my photo.

And Dani is awesome because she had totally rad snacks for us, these chips actually had bits of cheese on the chip, so it really had that pizza effect...what will the Koreans think of next.

And I had to get a picture of Joseph's totally cool old dirty hippy wii character, he and Malcolm both went for the unshaven old guy look.... Dani and I were cute characters though!

So after Wii games, and Tall about Home Improvments greatest moments ( wow could I have found a more perfect friend who also shared my teenage love of all things Jonthan Taylor Thomas!!!!! I think I did!) We headed over to the CGV to see a movie. We decided on the Imaginarium of Doctor Parnasuss (spelling?)..... Wow, I was confused and hopeful that it would either start making sense or getting better.... to no avail.... oh well at least Jonny Depp was in it. Joseph and I both agreed that it could have been better if Tim Burton had directed it....I will choose to remember Heath in his finer role as the Joker in Dark Knight!

So then we parted, Joseph and I headed home to get dinner (since we could think of nothing we wanted to eat on christmas day that was not supremely crowded) so we got some Dak Galbi ( chicken in a spicy red sauce over rice) to end our holiday... ( because I didn't feel like cooking anymore!)

It was a very different holiday than I imagined, but it was fun, and we had a fabulous time.... but this holiday, like all holidays do, ended much the same way.....

But since it was christmas Joseph helped, so I got a cute picture of the two of us on christmas Day ( yes he wore red and I wore green!) We were so festive!

sorry it took so long to update, but at least

I got it in before the new year!!!!!!!

Merry Christmas!

What's new....

Hello Again….

I always feel so terrible when a weekend comes and goes and we do nothing of interest, because I have no pictures and nothing to write about… but I figure this week enough has happened to warrant a full update.

So lets see, Work….. Work is going well. We are about to get some nice well deserved time off, which will be super excited, but once the holidays are over we will be back to the grind, except more work. In Korea, during the January month the kids have off from school, so instead of just having a break like kids in America have, parents sign their kids up for more than normal extra curricular activities. Meaning, this is a great time of Year for Hagwons to get new students, and provide more classes for the old ones.

Joseph and I will each be picking up a class of students ( he will be working with the older students with a Newspaper discussion class, and I will start a brand new class of fresh Korean kiddies learning the basics of phonics.) So now we start an hour earlier, and may possibly get off an hour earlier, which would be awesome.

Hmmm social life… doing much better, there have not been any foreigner parties in a while, so we have been hanging out with our friends Dani and Malcolm more. We went to see the movie Avatar last night which was really awesome. The best part of the evening was this picture we got outside the bathrooms…. Check it out

Apparently women sit, and men have to throw their leg up like a dog..... or maybe he was doing the " I have to pee dance".

We are planning a fun Christmas day extravaganza with them too! So I am looking forward to that. Dani will be providing the entertainment, I am working on a menu and the boys…. Well they are going to show up and possibly be in charge of snacks for the rest of Christmas day! ( but more than likely just show up!) So I will hopefully remember to take a million pictures and that will be a fun post!

Also tonight we went to dinner at Pizza hut. And I got pictures of Joseph and I in our new hats. Joseph finally found the hat he was looking for, and I replaced my old awesome hat I lost on the bus with a significantly less cool version, but it keeps my ears warm so I won’t complain too much.

Joseph putting on " the hat"

Looking very "buisnessman" in his hat. It perfectly matches his coat, it is awesome!

I also bought a really nice headband that I wore to the movies the other night, so I took a picture of that too. The big bangles on the headbands are really popular here so I decided this was one Korean trend I kinda liked. Hair accessories are so cheap here, I love it.

Well we are off to chill and maybe rent a movie. Tomorrow we have work so it will be an early night!

If anyone has any ideas for cheap Christmas dishes that I can make without a real oven, comments or ideas would be appreciated, I am already planning mashed potatoes, buying a precooked chicken (turkey is nowhere to be found here) and maybe some green beans, but I would like another side dish and possibly some kind of desert that you don’t have to buy in a box or bake…. Ideas?

A short update, but an update none the less! Merry Chirstmas to everyone!