Jen Rides A Trolley Up a Mountain

We spent a Saturday at Taejongdae Park on the island of Yeongdo. Gorgeous weather, lovely scenery, and fantastic friends... it's hard to imagine life getting much better. And I even had swine flu that week.

People in this slideshow: Jen, Sarah, Marcus, West Virginia (AKA Joe), Paul, Cameron, Angelique, Jessica, and random Korean people. And a trolley.

Jen is Thankful

So... this is my first Thanksgiving away from home. Such. A. Bummer. And that’s really and understatement. Everybody knows that Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year, simply because it’s the best. Obviously. It has the best food, there’s very little stress associated with it since mostly all I have to do is drive home and eat a lot for 2 days with people I like, and I usually get to spend every evening of Thanksgiving week with my friends, not worrying about work the next day. There is very little to be desired.

Well, one good thing about having H1N1 this year means I can continue my streak of not working on Thanksgiving Day. Thumbs up to that. (Sidenote: I am totally fine; the infamous Swine Flu barely even bothered me, I just mostly felt really tired... so I slept for 4 days straight, and was out of work the whole week. It was actually sort of awesome.)

The true best thing about Thanksgiving, I think, is that it’s a celebration of being grateful. And I believe that being grateful is the most important feeling someone can convey, to those they love, to humanity, and to the Universe. Every day should be about giving thanks, actually, so I am devoting today’s post to the things I am thankful for.

I am thankful for...
My beloved family, who I cherish and feel so blessed by every day, even on the other side of the Earth.
Hi-speed internet.
Starbucks Awake black tea with loads of sugar.
My kindred spirits on different continents.
The invention of leggings.
Being from Texas.
Having Val, the best audience ever, to always listen to me and love me.
HBO series.
Skype.
Having the best Mom ever, who always listens and never judges.
Growing up in a crowded house full of laughter.
Nana’s and Granny’s unmatchable home-cooking.
Scarves.
Living so close to one of my favorite people in Busan, Sarah Cheng.
The Universe for being so generous to me.
Having a Dad who would do anything for me, and who taught me what good tunes were, changing my life forever.
Q-tips.
Chipotle (even though I haven’t had any in months).
Having someone convince me that I do deserve good things to happen to me.
Colorful earrings.
The 2002 album 'Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots' by The Flaming Lips
Somehow meeting the two funniest girls in Mesquite way back when we were all merely teenagers, and becoming friends forever.
Having the friendliest, happiest, sweetest brother anybody could ask for.
My husky voice - it’s always a conversation starter.
High heels.
Somehow being brave enough to move away, knowing it would be the best thing for me in the end, no matter how hard it was at the time.
Cheap, beautiful false eyelashes in Korea.
Having a clever, beautiful little mini-me named Carly to remind me what life used to be like, and to have her to be SO overwhelmingly proud of.
Learning to be really good at silver chopsticks.
Being taught to love reading at a young age - my life would never be the same otherwise.
French fries.

Oh, there are so many more, but these are just the few I could come up with right off the bat. I love Thanksgiving so much, and I really am sad I can’t be with my family, but you gotta grow, right? And I give thanks every day anyway, just to be safe.

I love you, family and friends in Texas! Kisses from Korea!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

All the foreign teachers here in Busan were so excited about the 'snow' that could be seen on the ground and on the mountaintops today. My first thought was, okay, maybe it's because I'm from Texas and I'm not a snow expert, but I'm pretty sure that this isn't the mystical substance we call 'snow'.

Not to rain on anyone's parade. Or snow on it. But in fact, I'm pretty sure that being from Texas makes me even more qualified to identify this cold white substance as a tiny bit of ice and frost that would disappear once the first light of day hits it. I know this because we try to call this 'snow' back in Texas too, in a sad attempt to fulfill our unlikely dreams of a white Christmas. This is the type of stuff where you could scrape up your entire front yard and make a snowman the size of a roll of toilet paper. Which we would do, happily, and taking many pictures along the way.

And this does not mean I'm in for my very first white Christmas - what it really means is that it's colder than a well-digger's shovel and I don't have a car to huddle in on the way to school. And it seems even colder because it's 0 degrees outside because of the whole Celcius thing. Brrr. Is it spring yet?

Jen Finds a Photo Op... or 100

Here's some photos of me having fun with my friends. I haven't been as avid as I would like, but I'll try to make up for that.

Top 5 Things I Didn't Think Were Possible Before Korea

Hey, never say never, right?

1. Accidentally showing my class of middle school boys a video of a woman breast-feeding.

While many people would think this was impossible no matter where you live, they'd be wrong. In fact, if you're unlucky enough, and you have the entire internet at your disposal, there's almost nothing you can't accidentally show your class.

What happened was: I had the video all loaded and paused, and the completely innocuous advertisement before the video had already completed when the computer froze.  So then I had to pull the whole thing back up again, and what was the advertisement before it this time?  Something involving a close-up of a baby nursing. Awesome. 

I don't even know what the ad was for.  Were they trying to sell breast-milk?  I don't know.  But this is Korea, so maybe.

2. Becoming a millionaire overnight.

Yeah, so it's in Korean Won and the exchange rate to the dollar is about 1,000: 1, but it still counts.

3. Getting asked out by a cage fighter on Halloween.

I have to specify that it was a real cage fighter, not just a Halloween cage fighter.  And I also have to specify that he was not merely a cage fighter, he is also a teacher and a really intelligent and interesting guy.  But when I tell the story, clearly I'm going to say 'cage fighter' because of obvious comedic reasons.  

By the way, yes, we did go on a coffee date, and yes, it was really nice.  He's the smartest cage fighter I know.

4. Talking about the meaning of "Business up front, party out back" with a straight face.

Some might think that learning what a mullet is isn't pertinent information for a 14-year-old Korean kid.  I respectfully disagree. 

I made a lesson on hairstyles for my extra class, and not only did we cover the origin of the mullet, we covered the faux-hawk, the beehive, and the flat top (à la Kid of the 1990's hip-hop duo Kid n' Play).   

Hey, I'm sure these kids really need to know "Waiter, I dropped my fork" and "Don't I know you from somewhere?"  But they also need to know what to call that ugly hairstyle they saw on the hillbilly on the bus.

5. Having fish eat my dead skin.  And paying almost two whole dollars for it.

I can't say I anticipated that this would happen to me in my lifetime, but it is a really great experience (once you get over the tickling).  I'm pretty sure Dr. Fish is a colleague of Dr. Scholl's, although I have to say, the former offers a much more niche service.  They're both good guys though.

Holy, Moley, Me-Oh-My

This is my new favorite song, given to me by the coolest of the cool, my new friend West Virginia (and yes, that makes me Texas). I've been listening to it on repeat because it's just so wonderful. It made my day then and every day since that day. I dare you not to be happy listening to this song, I double-dog dare you.

Thanks WV for being so killer.