Engrish

Thank you very best. You give me lovely heart and happy smile time.

Wait, what? What you just read is Engrish. Engrish is found all over Korea and it is HILARIOUS. What is Engrish? That's a great a question. Sometimes it's the literal translation from Korean to English. Sometimes it's song lyrics with a random twist. Sometimes, I don't know what it is, but it's funny.

Here are some real examples of Engrish:

Another Sunday at the Yacht Club

"Dawling, fancy another sailing trip?"


Every year, SFS has a fundraiser for a TB center in North Korea. All 4 divisions of our school participate in the fundraising. There are bakes sales, competitions, classes and other events that take place in order to raise money for this important cause. Read more about Dongdaewon from last year's post.

One of the fundraisers is an auction where you can bid on a few things including artwork, pictures and even a sailing trip.  The sailing trip takes place on the Han river (click here to find out more about the Han river). This is where MELK comes in. We each took turns bidding on this sailing trip and after a couple of weeks of trying to outbid others, we won--all for a good cause, of course.

Sailing Trip # 1
We attempted to go sailing on April 22nd, but unfortunately the weather didn't want to cooperate. We had a lovely lunch (complete with wine and champagne) and still went out on the boat. Despite the weather, we still had a good time with our matchy-matchy outfits (thanks, Mate), talking inside the boat,  and wearing the 'Aquaholic' hats and shirts that Dilip, the owner, gave us.

MELK does Matchy-Matchy

Oh yeah!

  

 

Sailing Trip # 2
Since we had crappy weather the first time around, Dilip offered to take us out again. So Sunday, May 6th, the girls took their scooters on a 'Hooters on Scooters' trip to North Korea with some other SFSers while I slept in. (Have I mentioned that scooters are a big deal here? Everyone --except me because I'm too chicken-- has a scooter!). Around noon we headed back to the Han river for sailing trip #2. This time around the weather was gorgeous. We had a nice lunch, sailed for a few hours and then went out on Dilip's speedboat. Good times.

Sporting our sailing outfits again!

 
 



We ended the night at Vatos (and their delicious kimchi fries).
This was one of the BEST/CHEGO days in Korea!

April celebrations

A Fantastic Baby! Month: 
trips, adventures, food and showing KE how to celebrate her birth~month.

April started off by flying back from spring break (how did I take advantage of the long flight from Rome? By writing an awesome parody to Last Friday Night....music video coming soon). After a long layover in Shanghai, I finally made it back to the House of Glitter by 9pm. Happy to see my chingu roomie, we exchanged gifts, talked about our trips and went to bed early (riiiiiggght--went to bed at 2:00am). Being that I was jet-lagged and that I still had not hiked Ansan (even though it's basically in our backyard), I woke up at 5:30 and hiked the mountain with Misty and Kristen.

EARLY hike...not even 6am yet!

Worth it for the view

Week One: Adventurous eating, Mate's parents, dancing, British embassy, Okinawa

OEM

My second Sunday in Korea, I visited Onnuri English Ministry and it was one of the best decisions I made.

Let me back up a little bit. To say that I have had a bad church experience in the past would be an understatement. Unfortunately, one bad experience years ago made it really hard for me to connect in any church. Now-- I know that was mostly due to my own insecurity in getting attached, but honestly, church hunting was something that I DREADED. I always found something negative or some excuse so I wouldn't return. I had grown so apathetic to church, but I really missed the fellowship and having a church family.

Then, I came to Korea and knew that I wanted to plug into a church. I walked into OEM and they were singing Wonderful Savior. The rest is history. I continued attending. I enjoyed Pastor Eddie's biblical and convicting services, the 'Acts 29' church mentality, the 'come as you are'  acceptance and the 'change the world' hearts of the congregation.

I joined a small group, became a member and helped out in different ministries. Above all this, God taught me a lesson, healed me and gave me hope (funny that I had to come to the other side of the world for those lessons). He is so good to me.

So OEMers. thank you.  Attending this church goes on my "Top 5" experiences in the Land of the Morning Calm.

March Madness/Mellow March

So after the February Challenge, I was ready to rest, right? NOPE.

I'm a bit behind on my blogging (sorry for slacking, Heather) so I will quickly try to summarize March.

Orphanage and the cute babies!

The Launchpad's Brewery

 The House of Glitter hosted the Great Carb Loading (for Megan and Jacob's marathon)

Trampoline fun

St. Patrick's Day on the 8th grade hall

Getting my hair done....again

Korean style: brushing our teeth in a department store

Movies at 26:30 (or 2:30am) Sure, why not? Thank you Dongdaemun CGV!

Saw Nanta finally--an awesome cooking show. I got called on stage! 

With Elisa, her mom and her sis

Graded food projects 

Got a new nickname

Helped Mate celebrate by showing our dragon pride

Attended Stacy's bachelorette party and her wedding to JC

Dressed super Teeny Bopperish for BigBang in concert

Had random fun during professional development at Chadwick International School

 Was a super-tourist during our hotel stay

 Had a California in a Cup themed night with MELK

Just another adventure-filled month in SoKor! 

The DMZ

The Demilitarized Zone or DMZ is a strip of land that runs across the Koreas dividing the peninsula in two.  It runs across the 38th parallel and this area was the original boundary that was set between the US and the Soviet Union after World War II. This is also the most heavily fortified border in the world and there are about two million troops (North Koreans, South Koreans and Americans)  ready to go to war at a moment's notice, if needed.  If North Korean forces ever crossed the DMZ again, the US is automatically at war under a 1954 treaty backed by the United Nations resolutions in which the US is committed to defend South Korea.

My thought on all this: let's go check it out!

At the end of April, Amy, Gina, Kristen, Misty, Elisa and I headed to the USO office to check out the DMZ for ourselves.

Debriefing

Joint Security Area

Greetings from the North

They told us not to point or do anything that draws a lot of attention. This was HARD as I am known for my obnoxious poses.

The Bridge of no Return

Stamp at Dorasan station.

Dorasan station which will one day maybe unite the Koreas

Rebels

Inside a recently discovered tunnel that the North Koreans were making to get S.Korea

Photo opp!

RoK