Thanks, Mom!

We got a fabulous package from Mom this morning.  We saw the notice on our door and immediately went downstairs.  We caught the postman just as he was about to leave.

She basically restocked our kitchen.  We are going to eat so well for the next few months.  Thai rice noodles, soba noodles, quinoa spaghetti, Taste for Life healthy eating magazine, two cans of coconut milk, coconut oil, green Thai curry sauce, red Thai curry sauce, Pad Thai sauce, Twizzlers, two dark chocolate bars, organic red lentils and French green lentils and red pepper flakes.

We'll be making a Thai curry dish for dinner, so stay tuned.

Package from Ian's Folks!

Ian's birthday package from his parents arrived today.  We were pretty stoked.

 

We were still sweaty from the gym, but we have a no waiting policy for packages.

Ian's first discovery: Lindt Truffles!  His favorite.  One of mine, too.

 

They shipped along Ian's present to himself: a lighter military jacket.  I dig it.

Belated Christmas gift.

 

Ornament!

The contents: Starbucks coffee, croutons, Lindt Truffles, 4 Godiva bars, Christmas ornament, mini zen garden, Desktop toy fish aquarium, National Geographic, Rolling Stone, an issue of The Avengers and some info on Karate katas that Al sent along for Ian.

The mini zen garden is set up on top of our t.v.

Thank you Al and Judy!

Good night.

Ian's Early Birthday Fun

Ian's not the best at suspense, so he wanted to open his gifts as soon as her received them.

Mom's boxes came first.

Stuffed full!

 Pinto bean spillage.  Don't worry, none were lost.

 

Valentines candy, beans and lentils, spices, veggie wash, notepads and erasers (a family tradition), body scrub, Arches Magazine (a UPS grad necessity) and Zicam and vitamin E.

Ian's present was in it's own Mickey box.  But, he didn't want to wait for the 24th.  He didn't even want to wait for me to take the picture!

He totally digs it; and it suits him really well.  Maybe not in his swim trunks, though.

Rob and Danie's box came yesterday.  The delivery people actually stopped as as we were walking back from the gym.  They had tried to deliver but, as I mentioned, we weren't home.  So, we signed and they opened the van and gave it to us.  I guess being a foreigner can be useful sometimes.

 

Transformers wrapping!  We hung a little piece on our card window (of course, the cards from you guys got hung up, too).

Again with the no waiting.  What is it?

New rockin' jeans.  Maybe Ian's taking the rocking part a little too literally.  Then again, maybe not.

Snack crackers, licorice (red AND black), Jelly Bellies (including some "beanboozled" ones featuring flavors like vomit and rotten egg), good magazines, Ian's new jeans and what we believe to be a note in code from Grant.  Or Audrey. 

Thank you so much!  Ian is ecstatic over his gifts and the food stuffs (healthy and junky) help make us feel normal.  Love you guys.

We've found a couple strange Valentine heart candies that I thought might be worth sharing:

 

"Don't tell."

Congenital heart defect?

Good night!

A Little Christmas Leftover

We pulled ourselves out of bed a little earlier than we would have liked this morning to run to the post office and the bank.  Just as we were about to leave, the deliveryman rang our doorbell and gave us the package we were planning to retrieve.

Thanks Mom!  The comics calendar is great!

Thanks Al and Kat!  The action figure is rescuing Santa on top of our t.v. and Ian's stoked about the Secret Origins book.

My day was great.  It actually felt good to be back in the routine.  I hope that feeling lasts.  Though, my happy day may have something to do with my accidental double dosage of cold medicine this morning.  It wasn't actually double the dose, I just took two doses too close to each other because I miscalculated the time.  But, it put me in a really good mood.

Ian and I are trying to figure out whether we're actually invited to a company dinner tomorrow night.  Gene told us about it, but it's at 7 (we're not finished until 8:30).  They've excluded us from several dinners before, so it wouldn't be new.  Gene seems to think we're invited, but no one else has invited us and when Ian's principle was talking to him about it today, she was uncomfortable and she didn't say much.  So, we'll see.  I can't wait to actually be included in a work environment when we get home.  It's bad to count the days so early, but we do.

When I came home I noticed that our Spidey-Santa isn't fairing so well.

Gruesome!  It's okay.  The adhesive just gave out.  He's being put away this weekend anyway.

Good night!

소포를!

Packages!  (That's what the title says.)

Today started out as a good day.  We didn't have a meeting with Julia, so we went downtown to the post office to run errands.  They didn't have our packages, but we had to mail a couple of things anyway.  We didn't have our meeting with Julia today because we are having performance evaluations from 2pm-5pm on Sunday.  That should be a blast.

After the post office we went to Dunkin for some warm beverages.  It's freezing!

Koreans are tiny.  Just kidding, Ian got espresso.  It was a little burnt.

I got chrysanthemum tea and a chocolate donut.  Chrysanthemum tea confuses me, as the plant is poisonous.  It tastes a bit like chamomile, floral.

 

Ian got a lentil curry croquet.  It looks gross here, but I tried a bite and it was quite good.  It made us decide to go for Indian when we're in Seoul on Saturday.

Julia showed up at Ian's campus today.  I'll let him give you a synopsis of what she had to say:

"Julia wanted to let me know that she was hiring a "supervisor" so that she could lighten her work load.  What I really think she meant was that the Seoul Office decided that her English was not good enough to communicate with us.  I was also informed that Casey and I have fewer students returning than Julia would like.  About an 80% average between the four schools.  So, I informed her that we recieved no training at all and that the books we are using are "test" books, we are the only Yoon's that has them.  She just smiled and said, "Yes." over and over again.  She seems to want us to do well, but at the same time she doesn't bother to tell us anything that is helpful.  I'm actually hoping that the guy she is hiring, whom I had the pleasure of meeting today, is put on staff.  He actually speaks English and seems quite nice.  If anything I really just want her to either tell us what we need to do and how to do it, or leave us the hell alone."

The rest of the day was fine.  It was great to come home to mail.  I picked up the packages from the "guard room" and fumbled with them up to our apuhtuh.

The packages and I wait for Ian to get home.  It's tough not to accidentally read the "insurance" write up on the outside of them.  We like to be surprised.

Ian wasted no time when he got home.  We opened the one from Andrea first.  I forgot to take a picture of the packaging she used.  It was some sort of shredded paper and it was a bit epic.

Behold, the death of our weight loss goals!  Pinto beans, black beans, lentils, Tapatio, an apologetic replacement note, five (!) Cadbury bars, Dots, Mike and Ikes, Scooby Fruit Snacks, and homemade chocolate chip cookies.  My dear, you know us so well.  Too well, maybe.  We each ate two cookies upon opening, by the way.

I really like Tapatio, but, maybe not that much.

Next, we dug into the package from Mom.

It's like Christmas. :)

Mom didn't use much packaging, so the immediate view was impressive.

Cute!

Scarecrow, Christmas lights, Christmas socks, chocolate oranges, chocolate orange body scrub, candy canes, stickers, Arches magazine, a note, a cranberry orange candle, two to-go mugs, a door hanging, and an ornament.  Totally epic.

Out of the Barn candles make Ian happy.

The notes from the two packages were strikingly similar.

Using the giant lighter to light the candle.

Homey!

I hope you all have great Tuesdays.  Good night!

First Christmas Package!

The mail has been good to us this week.  We got a Christmas card from Gramma yesterday and today we got our package from the Greens (and Gramma).  It's the first package to be put in our mailbox.  It was a bit of a squeeze, so we had to be careful to not tear it (it was a soft package with wrapped presents in it) when we took it out.

It was sweet that you wrote on the back.  It made us smile.

Surgical removal of the envelope.

The loot!  Christmas gift, window jellies, Christmas kitchen towel, and a card from Gramma .  We had to put the ribbon back around the gift, but other than that, everything was in pretty good shape.

We never eat at our dining room table because it's too cold next to the window.  So, we're using George the Plant as our Christmas tree.  The jellies will go up on the window around the start of December.

Thank you Aunt Sherrie, Uncle John, Lynndsie and Ben!  It's nice to have some Christmas cheer in the apartment.  :)

We're pretty spoiled by all of you folks.  Thank you!  Good night!

Let the Halloween Festivities Begin!

This morning we were greeted by a mailman at our door with a package for us from Justin.  We were really stoked and actually having it delivered was simply icing on the cake.

The package awaits us.

Well, it awaited me while I finished talking to Mom about our (then) missing check we sent home.

Ian is done waiting!

The coffee smelled really good. And we got hats!

And we got a moka pot!

The goods: a card, a winter hat for me, white chocolate macadamia nut cookies, moka pot (with instructions), Starbucks espresso, a winter hat for Ian, a hand held tetris game, and three excellent Lindt bar.  Thank you, Justin!

Today we started our Halloween unit.  Both Ian and I were busy all day, making copies and creating activities.  We didn't use the book at all, but neither of us had trouble filling our class times.  The kids seemed to really like it.  For the little kids we did things like making masks, drawing Halloween scenes, and doing Halloween themed word searches.  The older kids had crossword puzzles, monster riddles and video clips (namely, "This is Halloween" from The Nightmare Before Christmas) followed by a writing exercise/ discussion.  All the kids got candy in my classes for saying "trick or treat" at the beginning of class and then for answering correctly.  It was a pretty great day; I can tell it's going to be a fun week.

Some of my Beginner 2 (about 10 years old Korean age) kids modeling their masks.  From left to right: Gabriel, Kevin, Jose (pronounced Josey), Jennifer, Kaitlyn, and Robert.

I'm reading one of the books that Erin sent us (Travels with Charley by Steinbeck).  I'm completely in love with it.  The book is an autobiographical account of a roadtrip he took with with his dog across the US.  I'll be sure to write a review when I've finished it, but so far, I fully recommend it.

Good night!

Forgotten Things and a Care Package

This morning Ian and I realized that there are a few amusing things we've (well, I've) forgotten to include in the blog.

Firstly, some of my kids' English names aren't exactly English.  I've had a couple Antony's.  Not Anthony, but Antony.  I recently got a new boy in class named Alejandro.  Almost everything I say to him I say with a Spanish accent.  It's my own private joke, since they don't hear the difference.

Secondly, Ian would like you to know that he has been teaching his kids TV theme songs line by line.  A couple of weeks ago, he taught some of his kids the Fresh Prince of Belair theme.  Today he taught a class the theme song for the Flinstones.

And thirdly, I forgot to report a totally awesome happening yesterday.  In my second Basic 3 class on Mondays, I have a boy named Caleb and a boy named Thomas.  They're both good students and they play off each other a lot in class.  Well, yesterday, when I got to Thomas in the roll call, Caleb burst into the Thomas and Friends theme in Korean.  I asked "Thomas and Friends?" and he was pretty stoked that I knew it.  I asked him if he liked Thomas and he said he was too old, though he seemed pretty into it to me.  Later I asked him if he'd been to the Sodor park in Japan and he regretfully reported that he hadn't.  Much to human Thomas' dismay, Caleb continued to sing bits of the song occasionally during class.  YouTube won't let me embed the song in the post, so here's a link.  It's worth a listen because the tune really doesn't work all that well in Korean.  It made me laugh, at least.   

We went to the post office this morning to pick up our package from Erin.  We've been anticipating it for a while now (the post office kept trying to deliver it while we were at work), so we were pretty stoked.

Yay!  Packages get pretty beat up on their way here.

What is it?  It's a baby pumpkin!

Ian may have been a little overzealous about appreciating the pumpkin.

I got awesome mustard colored vintage-y gloves as a belated birthday gift.  They will be great for the deep winter we have here.

Care package contents from top left: Hershey's Miniatures, Reese's Miniatures, baby pumpkin, People Magazine, Seattle Magazine, Glamour Magazine, card and letter, gloves, Uno Game, Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck and The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins.

Thank you, Erin!

We're so lucky to have folks like you all back home.  You rock.