So Long Sweet Summer

As much as I love the heat, sundresses and picnics outside, I've come to realization that summer is officially over. The biggest difference between my summer in Korea and a summer spent on the beach in Michigan is my lack of tan lines and sun kissed cheeks. Korea's mentality is the whiter the skin, the better.

-Newsflash-

Oversized sunglasses: Out

Oversized visors: In

Everyone wears these silly looking visors that cover their whole face. They also carry umbrellas around to shade themselves and instead of tanning lotions, they sell skin whitening creams. In the long run, they age slower and skin cancer isn't as common. I hope my summer of paleness will cancel out 22 years of prickly heat, sun poisoning, and peeling skin.

I told you it's a new trend. Juicy Couture is even on board with oversized visors.

Travel Bug

I saw "Eat, Pray, Love" last night and even though it wasn't my favorite JR movie, it was still inspirational and made me want to travel the world (and eat real spaghetti and margarita pizza). My mom and I are in the process of finalizing our trip to South Africa in January. It's the type of situation where I won't believe it until my tickets are booked, passport is stamped, and I see a real elephant in the wild. I'm so grateful I've had the opportunities to travel and I'm no where near being done. I feel like every day I add another place I want to see and something new I want to try to my never ending bucket list. The people I've met, things I've seen, and cultures I've lived in have opened up my eyes to a world outside of the bubble.

Baby Love

I've noticed that mothers in Korea have the craziest baby carrying contraptions.

Exhibit A: This past weekend I spotted a lady with a full on terry cloth wrap around robe and somehow in all of that fabric, her baby was also in it. She had her baby placed on her front side, but the picture below shows that it's very versatile. The best part about it are the animal ears on the hood. I mean it's cute and everything and I suppose you can get a variety of them in different colors and patterns to match with your outfits, but is the full body robe really necessary?

Exhibit B: Similar to the full body robe from above, this next one just boggles my mind. It's literally a blanket with a tie. How does the baby stay attached?! This is definitely the most common baby carrying device, but I still don't understand how it works. It looks like the baby would fall right out of it. Also, similar to the one above, is the full body wrap really necessary? Just thinking about sporting this in the heat of summer makes me sweat.

Aw, who's that?!

Rise and Shine

I'm rarely up early enough to see the sun rise, but I caught these pictures on my way out to catch my flight to Hong Kong (which I still need to write about). I thought the sky looked so pretty!

Shake it Like a Polaroid Picture

...the title really has nothing to do with this post.

Kids really do say the darndest things. I wish I could remember all of their little comments that make me laugh throughout my day, but here are some that stuck in my head from the past few weeks.

• "Teacher, you look like a ninja."
• "Teacher, do you like God? I like God. Well, my school likes God so I have to like God."
• "Teacher, he took my sharp." (sharp = mechanical pencil)
• "Did you find a husband this weekend?"

Side story #1: Today, I had a new student so I obviously asked what her name was. She said Lena and I thought that was cute and called her Lena the rest of class. It wasn't until I was inputting grades at the end of the day that I realized her name was really Rina. Koreans have trouble saying 'r's' so I heard Lena instead of Rina. Oops.

Side story #2: One of the topic discussions last week was about helping others. Together, we made a list of people we wanted to help and how we would help them. Somehow North Korea made it on the list. There were a few questions about North Korea so I briefly had to explain the differences between North and South Korea which made for an interesting and semi-awkward conversation. In the end, their presentations were so touching and heartfelt all about how they wanted to help people in North Korea.

Another thing that I've noticed is that my students mix up the words 'fun' and 'funny' all the time. No matter how many times I explain 'fun' is like woohoo! and 'funny' is like haha, they just don't get it.

Totally Bangin'

Guess what?! I got bangs (sounds like the line from Legally Blonde)! I wanted something new and that was that. The pictures below are pretty small, but you get the idea.

Hello Kitty slippers- check; Hello Kitty mug- check

Neon green bow- check

Like Woah

Hello October. Where did you come from?!

It's hard to believe that it's already October. It finally feels like fall minus the football, cider and doughnuts (sigh), but I'm getting excited thinking about my Halloween costume(s).

Short and sweet.

Peace.