My Korean Christmas Celebration

Before my Christmas holiday vacation we had our Christmas Day at LCI where we celebrated Christmas with all the children. I was so excited for this day and had been preparing for it all week with my naughty and nice jars, and my reading of christmas books each day. The kids had really earned a fun day after having their monthly test the day before, and I was ready to spoil them and have a blast in the process! For all the children ending up in the "nice" jar their christmas surprise was a christmas hat to wear during the festivities. I had my reindeer antlers on so I knew they would want to wear something too, and as I suspected the gift was a big hit! Also, as i suspected they were playing with them ALL DAY LONG, which ended up being funny as well as entertaining as they proceeded to poke each other in the face with them! Uh-oh!

 

We quickly moved through our short curriculum for the day, as Santa was waiting for us in the playroom with gifts for everyone and the kids were extremely anxious to see him. Every 5 minutes they would ask me if he was at LCI, and how long it would be until we saw him! It was so cute, and brought back so many memories of when I was a kid. I of course egged them on telling them that Santa got them really great gifts and had flown all the way from the North Pole, etc. Finally it was our turn to go to see Santa and the kids waited, eyes wide and mouths open in anticipation, the hallway!

 

We went inside and the kids sat nicely on a mat and waited for Santa to come in. Finally he did, and I have to admit, it was SO WEIRD to see a Korean Santa Clause! I mean when I was younger 'my' Santa I always thought about always spoke English, but not this guy! I never considered as a kid that Santa could by bilingual, or for that matter speak every language since he visits kids all over the world! Like any kid, I only thought about little old me! The kids were eating it up, speaking Korean back and forth to Santa and then one by one went up to Santa and got their present. They were thrilled.

 

As soon as they got their presents it was so tough for me to tell them not to open them. Like any normal child they wanted to rip it open, but they were not allowed to, so instead they gathered together and shook their gifts and guessing what they thought it might be. How many times have you done that as a child? Or even as an adult!!!

Soon present time with Santa was over so we had a quick photo op with the whole class and then were off to other festivities.

 

 

 We had cookies and read more christmas books, and in the afternoon began our fantastic Christmas concert! We had been practicing our song "rocking around the Christmas tree" for 4 weeks so the kids were pretty good at the song. We had made awesome guitars to play during the song, as it was a pretty rock and roll version, and they were excited to show the school how talented we were. All the kids at LCI gathered in our big gym room and the concert began. We had a few precious 5 year olds barely singing and dancing who got some stage fright, and then we had many 7 year olds who were ready to show their stuff! A few kids were getting bored and began to entertain themselves.....in many classes we had some nose pickers....

 

In my class the boys just deciced to change the look of their christmas hats to christmas headbands. This had me in hysterics because I thought they just looked like girls at that point. But whatever it takes to keep them quiet...

 

 

My class did wonderful when it was our turn to sing our song though! We even had a few technical difficulties with the CD player, but we still had a killer performance! I was so nervous when we were going on stage that I felt like their scared Mama or something, just wanting them to do their best. But they sure did, and I felt so full of happiness and joy after it was all said and done! All their personalities came out on stage, even the little boy who has special needs, who looked so sick of the whole charade and didn't want to perform. Afterwards he came and sat in my lap and plugged his ears, as I am guessing the music and performances were too much for him. Bless, I wouldn't change a thing about our fantastic Christmas performance and my amazing kids. The day was such a blessing and one I will never forget!



The oh so infamous....Coex

Last week one of my kinder kid's missed school and came in the next day not sick at all. I asked him, "Why were you absent yesterday?" He replied excitedly, "I was at the Coex!" I looked at him a little confused and said, "what were you doing at Coex?" (I thought it was a big grocery store or something) and he replied, "I went to the kimchi museum!" As soon as I heard those two words, I realized I needed to look into this whole Coex thing. What was it? Why do I keep hearing about it, and if it is so cool why haven't I gone there yet? I asked my friend Kyle who has lived in Korea before, and he got the same goofy look on his face. He was so excited about Coex and told me I HAD to go and check it out. He had never been to the Kimchi museum and neither had my friend Trista, so we decided to make an outing of it on our day off yesterday.

As you first enter Coex you see beautiful lights streamed over your head. As an American you are happily surprised by the array of familiar restaurants that are around you. We first ran into Bennigans, Cold Stone Creamery, and Dunkin Donuts, then ventured inside to find Outback and On the Border!

You realize very quickly that there is no rhyme or reason to the layout of this place, as it is so much of a maze you HAVE to look at a map to find your way around! Luckily Kyle found a high tech map that was touch screen! I was amazed by this feature as I thought the paper map I held in my hand was as helpful as the Coex was going to be! Boy, was I wrong! We easily found our way to the Kimchi museum through this touch screen map!

As we got to the Kimchi Museum I was very excited. I had no idea what I was going to find! My kinder kid was so thrilled about it, that I just knew it was going to be good! The first time I had kimchi, August of this year, I hated it. I thought it was weird and spicy and could not get past the idea that it was fermented. But now, living in Korea for 4 months, I have to say I am a huge fan of the stuff. I hate having a meal without it. Just the thought of going to the kimchi museum had me craving it all day, and all night after we left.

We entered for Museum and I soon learned that kimchi is NOT fermented cabbage with the spicy sauce, that is merely one type. Kimchi is the name of the process! Korean people would put a vegetable (the popular type is cabbage) in a huge pot and bury it underground for a long time until the fermentation process was finished.

 

Kimchi pots that would be buried

 

They would combine garlic, ginger, salt, and red chili powder to make a sauce and would eat it through the cold months helping them to not go hungry as their fields of food were not producing. I was honestly so amazed and had so many questions as I saw the amount of variations of kimchi that I was unaware of! I decided I really need to venture out of my normal cabbage kimchi choice.

 

In case you were wondering, here are the Ingredients of Kimchi:

 

Now before you go trying to dig up your back yard to make this, keep in mind there is a certain process you need to follow. Also, now-a-days many people have 'kimchi refrigerators' where the fermentation process will take place. Also, if you try to make the sauce, remember you will probably need more garlic and red chili powder than you would regularly choose. Koreans LOVE spicy food and garlic, believing it helps the body to cleanse and get rid of illness. I will definitely vouch for these facts, as garlic is in everything I eat and my spice tolerance has grown dramatically since moving here! Also, when I was sick, a good and spicy Korean meal really did clear my sinuses and made me feel a little better the next day!

 

 

We finally got to the tasting room and got to taste 8 different kinds of kimchi. We also proceeded to learn about the 'good' bacteria in kimchi and how it helps keep you from aging, cleanses the colon, and is an anti-illness food. (especially cancer) Who knew something I despised four months ago was so key to my health? How will I ever live without it now?

 

 

After the kimchi museum we walked aimlessly throughout Coex marvelling at the size of the place and how it was the closest thing we have seen to an 'American-style' mall since being in Seoul. I proceeded to try to find hand sanitizer in a HUGE department store by typing it into Google Translate on my phone, and when we didn't have any luck we decided we needed to take a break from the chaos of Coex. So we ducked into 'On the Border' for some good ol' Margaritas and endless chips. You have no idea how spoiled we are in America to have so many places that give you endless chips or bread! You don't realize how awesome it is until you are gone! Also, here in Korea no one knows how to make a good mixed drink. Now I'm not a pro at making a margarita but I know you need real limes and salt on the rim. Many restaurants don't use limes here.... they are like some weird precious commodity, and so the margaritas suffer. But On the Border did not let us down! We were all so happy to have a real margarita that we didn't have to manufacture to make it taste appetizing.

 

 

We left Coex really happy with our outing! We got to see a very cool mall, learned so much about kimchi, and got an amazing taste of home with a familiar restaurant! I could have spent hours in that place. Now I can join my Kinder kids in saying that Coex really is great and I hope to return soon!

 

 

Holiday Spirit



This week has been a little crazy with hearing about terrifying news from back home. Honestly when everyone told me at our Saturday night Christmas party that someone had shot some kindergarten children I could not talk about it. A good friend said very insightfully, "Don't tell her about it, she will get upset." This is the reason I hate watching the news and would rather be kept in the dark....some things are just too hard to swallow. As I went to work on Monday I wasn't sure how to approach my job. I was exhausted from a holiday fun filled weekend, but also felt a different way about being a kindergarten teacher after hearing this terrible news. Also, it is the week before Christmas, so this week is supposed to be one of the happiest weeks of the year with my kids....I didn't want to let any sad news get me down. Literally when any other teachers started talking about the shooting in the workroom I did one of the "La, la, la" numbers, plugged my ears, and walked away, because I could not let this put me in a funk with my kids.

It's funny the way that God made me though, as I could not have predicted how the day would turn out. As I sat down for circle time on Monday, head ache coming on, hot coffee in hand, stressed about their upcoming test and thoughts of a shooting in the back of my mind, I still didn't go to a negative place. It took one silly comment from one of the CUTEST kids Jason to put me into silly Ms.Nikki mode. He looked at me and said something so completely normal like, "Teacher, do we have library today?", in his cute and heavy Korean accent followed by a huge hug from a little girl EJ and a glance to the back of the room to see John doing taekwon do kicks. How can you be angry at the world when you are surrounded with these faces? 

 

I decided, who cares about anything but these crazy kids today? It's Christmas, Jesus was born next week! It's time to celebrate, laugh, and have fun! Who cares about anything but that. So we did our work of course, but there were lots of silly laughs, tickles and dancing and singing through the halls (which is usually strictly prohibited by Ms.Nikki!) We enjoyed each other and enjoyed the day!  I decided we would start "Naughty & Nice" jars which would help them to be on their best behavior all week.

 

 

If they are in the "nice" jar come Thursday after school, I will bring them a CHRISTMAS SURPRISE on Friday! They were ecstatic about this announcement. They had a million questions about what the surprise would be and how they can get around it, sneaky little kiddos, but I'm sure they will all get my little reward. (which will probably be Santa hats or something like that for them to wear on Friday when we have our Christmas festivities.) PitterPan completely made my day when he asked me, "After you done with jars, you give to Santa?" with a huge grin on his face! He is adorable.

 

We continued the day practicing our Christmas carols, and decorating Christmas cards. This card was adorable that Jason made for me:

  

 

It was so much fun enjoying the festivities of Christmas and looking around at our fantastically decorated classroom! We have worked so hard over the past couple of weeks to color Santa hats, stockings, and cut out snowflakes to make our room look very festive and ready for Christmas! I even attempted at making this Santa, which I have to say turned out very nice!

 

Over this holiday season I have been so sick and so I have not gotten a chance to decorate my apartment with tons of Christmas decorations like I usually do! So, I decided I needed a very festive classroom to make me excited about the holidays and with my kids LOVING to color, it was very easy to get this task accomplished! I always feel so loved by my children and feel like such a part of the school and the kid's when I peer over at our beautifully decorated window! I see my name along with every other child's name next to Santa and I remember the innocence and joy that comes with this time of year!

 

 

I also bought a cute mini tree for my desk at work to keep me feeling joyful and ready for Christmas!

 

My favorite part of this past Monday and this whole week has been the new theme of our Christmas afternoon! When we went to the library John found "Twas the Night before Christmas" and I decided we would read a Christmas book every day this week. We read a Christmas book and then talk about the book, usually leading to questions about Santa and reindeer's! I stand in front of 11 wide eyed 6 year olds just hanging on my every word and it is so sweet to partake in! It leaves me feeling full of love and reminiscing on the times where I was excited for Santa to come and bring me presents!

After our Christmas book is done, I tell the children to get on their coats and backpacks to go home for the day and walk over to the CD player to put on "Carol of the Bells." I absolutely LOVE this song, mostly because me and my sister used to laugh at people who would sing this song so seriously since it is such a hard and creepy song to sing! To this day, I'm not sure the lyrics of half of the song, I just make up my own since it is so fast! It is one of my favorite songs because of all the good memories I have of me and my sister singing it in our church choir, or dancing around our living room laughing and singing the "Ding Dongs" back and forth to one another. Because of this, I have put this song on everyday at the end of school for the past 3 weeks and I can't help but want to dance around to it since I used to do this when I was young!

 So this week as one of my kids said "Do the bell song!" I was not going to object! I put it on and my naughty little boys who I love SO MUCH, run over to me and say "DANCE WITH ME!" and I started swinging Jason around and twirling and jumping around the classroom. PitterPan came over to join the dance party and then John too, and as we twirled and swayed and they tried their best to sing it in their broken English, I couldn't stop laughing! They all laughed and said "MORE MORE!" and we danced until the bell rang, and it was a festive and fantastic day.

 

Christmas equals a time to celebrate! Thanks to my gorgeous eleven children, and a little bit of sillly Ms.Nikki, that's what we have been doing this week! Ho, Ho, Ho!

Waiting to say YES

Life is hard. Life is beautiful. Life is forever disappointing and forever rewarding. There are so many feelings people feel on a daily basis when it comes to experiences they encounter making them feel a range of emotions from good to bad depending on the minute. It can take something as small as a few words to brighten someone’s day or to ruin it, and it’s hard to realize we are this fragile and susceptible to interactions and relationships with others.

I have thought a lot over the past few days about the concept of ‘waiting’ to do something great. As many of you know, the idea of coming to Korea was somewhat of a quick choice that manifested overnight and within a few months I was here. While abroad I have decided I want to see as many places as possible and experience the world. For me, I am not letting something like the price of airfare or hotels play any part in my dream of seeing the world because I don’t want to WAIT to do something great. I have an opportunity to do it now and I do not see why I would not take it? Of course I can rationalize saving my money and that maybe one day in the future I will travel around Asia and do all the trips I didn’t do this year, but I just don’t see the logic in that.

What are we waiting for?

I am going to Bali and Kuala Lumpur in 3 days and I couldn’t be happier about that. I couldn’t imagine not jumping at the chance to travel around Asia while I am here because of the distant thought that ONE DAY I will get a chance to do it again. Why not now? The same train of thought came into my head about buying my Mom her plane ticket to come and see me in February. Sure, I COULD wait until September to see her, but if it would make myself and her extremely happy to come sooner then WHY NOT? What would I be waiting for?

I know quite a few people that only choose to live their lives to the fullest when there is some tragedy. They have been given a terminally ill diagnosis so they book the flight to Europe that they have always dreamed about and finally see the cities of their dreams. Or because of that terminally ill diagnosis the family of that person buys a plane ticket out to spend time with that person, when they have wanted to see them for so long now. What are they all waiting for? Europe has always been there and the address of the family member was common knowledge.

Now, I understand there are a million reasons to save money, to stay home, to not do the things you want to. I’m just saying sometimes it’s good and necessary to say yes. It’s important to not WAIT, because sometimes waiting is the same as saying NO to your dreams and then they will never come true. By no means do I have the money to be doing everything in my mind I want to do, but you better believe I’m going to knock a bunch of things off my bucket list whenever I can; purely because I don’t want to wait, the time is now!

 

If the world is really supposed to end in 48 hours, what is it that you will wish you had not waited to do?  I won’t have anything to add to that list….

Subway Shopping!

Here in Korea a prime place to shop is the subway. You will often here someone say “Oh, I bought this in the subway,” and that is not a weird phrase at all! Here the subways are full of cheap deals from great stores and if you have your patience and a keen eye you can find some real gems.

I had to get a present for my Secret Santa tonight so I ventured to the Gangnam subway for some good deals on good stuff. They have everything you could imagine, from clothing to phone accessories and each store is competing with the next. It is a chaotic scene full of yelling salesmen, bright colors, crowds of people, and signs I cannot read. Tonight I simply put my ipod in my ears, and did some damage to my bank account!

Here is what the subway stores look like! They often have dresses that only a size zero could fit into…..

For this reason, I usually lean towards the funky asian sweaters, that can sometimes be weird and questionable, but usually just make me laugh…..

 

  You will never guess which one I OWN!

 

There are a ton of different tights of varying colors and designs….

 

That you can pair with a million different types of shoes…..

 

There is even a store that is called “GANGNAM STYLE”, just in case you want to make sure you dress with Psy’s approval.

Before leaving the subway make sure you update your phone accessories….they have so many good ones here in Korea that I have never seen back home! 

Overall it’s a wonderful, fun, addictive and dangerous place to go if you have money to spend and time to kill! You always walk out with something fun that will end up being the topic of conversation whenever you wear it! My favorite purchases tonight? Killer Asian Furry shoes and a grammatically incorrect sweater that is just soo funny to wear since I’m an English teacher!

Gotta love the Gangnam subway! 

Making Memories

When I think about some of the most amazing times in my life I often think about the people I was with. I think about how the moment made me feel, but also how amazing it was to share it with others. I am a fond believer of making moments WITH people, because it makes them so much sweeter.

A recent time that comes to mind is when I got to tour wine country in NC with some amazing friends and my Mama for my 26^th birthday celebration. I had always wanted to tour vineyards and there were so many that were in easy driving distance. I told my Mom how I wanted to do something new and different for my birthday and we set it up as a long weekend away. I had two amazing friends with me, Melissa and Brenda, and of course my Mom. Those of you who do not know about my Mom and I’s relationship….let’s just say we are close. Very close, like best friends as well as mother and daughter kind of close, friends and family. So being the amazing friend and mother she is, she went to great lengths to research the vineyards and even find a cabin we could stay in. I learned all about winemaking, became an expert on varietals, and had too many laughs to count with my hysterical girlfriends there along for the ride. We basically became wine connoisseurs after our 4 day adventure; or so we claimed! Even though my Mom was battling a severe cough, she still did whatever she could to make the trip memorable. If I had done this tour of wine country with anyone else besides these awesome three ladies, it would not have been the same. We made memories together, and it’s that togetherness that I remember when I think back on our trip!

Another recent time that comes to mind is my going away party that my parents threw for me before I left for Korea. I remember being excited that people were coming that I had not seen in a while, and happy to see my closest friends there, but the warmth and love that I felt by the end of the night was overwhelming. We danced, ate and had a great time, but it’s the feeling that I got from being around so many people that loved me that will always stick with me.

I remember feeling so touched that so many people wanted to genuinely wish me good luck, and it was once again that encouragement of being together with friends that gave me courage to leave the country. My neighbor and great friend, Sabrina, even made me a goodbye video and got everyone at my party to say a farewell message to me! It was so amazing and makes me feel so blessed to have SO much to go back to next year when I return to the States.

The people we share moments with are what truly make a moment special. There is no doubt about that.

 

 

 

Here in Seoul I have met some amazing new friends and I laugh and smile at the beautiful memories we are making together. But so often when we are out at Barbeque or taking photo’s in front of an amazing Korean Temple, I can’t help but feel like something is missing. Not having my Mom with me, or other members of my family, is a nagging feeling I wish I could remedy. I take photos and videos to try to explain to them all the new things I am experiencing, but I want my best friend to experience it with me. I want my Mommy, there is no other way to put it. When I did my year abroad in England she came to visit me twice which was such a huge blessing because I feel like I can’t go 6 months without seeing her. I needed her to see all I was doing in that country, so her coming to visit was a necessity!

As much as I love experiencing the world and living in new unfamiliar places, I know it would never be a permanent choice because I couldn’t imagine being away from my Mom for an enormous amount of time. I know that she feels the same, and misses me so much when I am gone, but she is always the first to encourage me to see the world and live my life!

I am now reaching my 4 month mark of being away from home. I will have an amazing dose of comfort and home when I get to see my sister in a week as we travel around Southeast Asia. Getting to see her will give me the necessary fill of family that I am craving more and more each day.




My Mom plans to come and see me next September and we will do our own traveling of the world together, but I just don’t know if I can wait another 9 months to have our reunion. This is why I’m buying her a ticket to come and see me in Seoul for her birthday. She will come and see me for one week and see everything I am doing first hand. I know she will fight me on it a little because of the financial aspect, but it’s just money and I’m not using it right now. I can’t think of a better way to cash it in then to get my Mom on my side of the world. For purely selfish reasons, I want you here to eat Korean food, see my beautiful Korean kids, and experience this Korean city I live in!

So, what do you think Mama? Will your body and Seoul be ready by February? Say yes, and I'm booking it today! Wearing my heart and waiting for your answer...

J




Belize

England 2007

Wine Tasting Fundraiser



Wedding Reception 2010



Wilmington

Greensboro, Alecia Keys Concert
 

New York

VA wedding

Right Before Camp, NY

Ecoli?? haha Lincoln

Hendersonville





Greensboro

Hull, UK

 



Belize Ball

Kure Beach



Christmas 2011

 

I love you Mama!!! See you soon!