June down

Yes! We are thrilled for June to be over. It has been a rough month. We celebrated by getting 2 dozen Krispy Kreme donuts today. They were a 1+1 deal. (Buy one dozen, get one dozen free). Today was also a very big grocery shopping day. Now we have food to eat for all meals!

The past week was much calmer than this entire month has been. On Wednesday evening we went out with Nicole's coworkers to celebrate the end of open class. Two of her coworkers had their open class that day & they were the last ones. We went to a new Chicken & Beer place in Mannyeon-dong (our old neighborhood) but it was too expensive for what we got. So we left & got our own chicken from a stand & beer from the convenient store. It was an interesting & fun night. At one point, John was doing an "awkward octopus" with his hands as one of Nicole's coworkers flipped him off. Who goes by at the exact moment? One of the bosses of Maple Bear (Nicole's school). Too perfect timing!

Thursday afternoon, Nicole was able to finally get her ARC card! John got his the week before. We are happy that we can now get phones & Costco cards & be able to transfer money to our American bank accounts! Thankfully we're both getting paid again soon & can send a good portion home to save.

John got word on Friday evening that his school is yet again changing how they do things because parents aren't happy with something. We are getting very frustrated with Korean parents. As far as we've seen & heard, their major or only concern is 1 of 2 things: their child is the best OR their child is having enough fun, not necessarily learning anything. The second one is seen more at Nicole's school rather than John's. There are some parents there who send their kids to the school for the sake of bragging that they go there. And of course, if something goes wrong, the foreign teacher is going to get blamed, because, well, they're the foreigner. We expect this, but it's just annoying!

Anyways, we had a good weekend off from work: relaxed, watched movies, worked out, ate at Self Bar, hung out in Time World. All good things! Except, the workouts we did on Saturday were a little rough. John & our friend did a mile run, 100 body blasters, & another mile run. All in a matter of about 40 minutes! There was a lot of dirt & some blood! Nicole is no where near their level so she did her own workout & she is sore all over today. But they were good for both of us. We're all going to look awesome for our vacation to Thailand!

At this time, we leave for Thailand in 27 days! We are so excited! We are going with 2 of our friends. We will be flying into Bangkok, then flying to Chiang Mai. Staying there a couple of days to do a jungle trek & see some temples. Then we will fly to Phuket & stay there a few days relaxing on the beach & doing what tourists do. We can't wait!

This week we realized how different Seoul is from Daejeon. We noticed when we were there but after being back in Daejeon, we miss the convenience! That's the major thing. Seoul is way more convenient in several aspects. First, the subway system is crazy, yet efficient. On our trip we never waited more than 3 minutes for a subway. In Daejeon we might wait 10+ minutes. We were always very close to food or drinks if we needed it. Even when we were at the tower. Also, everywhere we went, we spoke English. Rarely did we use the little amount of Korean we know because most workers we came across spoke at least a little bit of English. You won't always find that in Daejeon! There's always the question, "do they speak any English there?" When referring to restaurants, bars, stores, offices, etc... Even though Seoul was easier, we truly enjoy the challenge of the language barrier & it only helps us want to learn more of the Korean language.

Sign in a taxi with a slight
translation problem. This is
actually one of the better signs
when it comes to bad English.

Hanging out in Time World

We got a fan this week. Nicole
had to carry it home with one
arm in the rain. This is how her
arm looked still a day later.

Soap, Superman, Stress, Self Bar, Seoul, Sleep!

So it's been a couple of weeks since our last post - we've been extremely busy & exhausted. Yes, more than normal. At times to the point of tears! But we've had the best weekend & things will start calming down for both of us soon. And we leave for Thailand in 34 days!

Since our last post, we celebrated our 2 years together. We went to Baskin Robbins & got a small sampler cake (it had 9 different flavors). With the cake came some dry ice... we did several experiments. Our favorite was the giant soap bubble we made! It was a fun & relaxing evening.

Last weekend we were going to go to Seoul but we ended up going out late on Friday night to 2 new places. Santa Claus & Shisha House. Yes, I said Santa Claus. It's a bar. They have delicious hotdogs! They were pretty big. Don't know why we didn't think to take a picture! Next time though. Shisha House was one of the nicest places we've been to when it comes to appearance. Definitely the cleanest public bathroom we've been in! Other than that, we mostly relaxed over the weekend & watched movies. We went to see Man of Steel & loved it! Highly recommended!

Our TEFL Certificates came!

During the week we had really high stress levels. A couple of John's classes keep getting changed so he isn't able to maintain consistency with the students. And it's even harder that it's his youngest kids... & that he doesn't know about these changes until they are happening while he is in the middle of class! On Thursday, he also found out that he had to attend a 7-hour seminar on Saturday. But this information came from a coworker, not his boss! We decided that we would both go because it was in Seoul (and a free ride to Seoul) & then spend the night & take the train home on Sunday. Thankfully it worked out but that seminar was mostly ridiculous & only a little helpful. The audience was supposed to be Koreans who teach or want to teach English. We were just a few of the maybe 10 white people that were there.
Nicole had what's called 'open class' on Friday. All of her kids parents sat in her classroom to watch her teach for 45 minutes. She had been preparing for it for over 4 weeks. So much stress was put on her to have a "perfect" open class. 45 minutes doesn't seem like a long time, but it is! The night before, we went to Self Bar & ate our way thru a lot of meat. It was a good stress reliever. After it was over Friday, Nicole was so happy. And the class actually went very well. Her students were great.

Before we headed to Seoul on Saturday morning, we went to a couple of Nicole's coworkers house & watched Back to the Future! One of her coworkers had never seen it & everyone was just very off put by that fact so it was a must watch. We got home around 11:30 & fell asleep by 12:30, only to wake up at 5:20 so that we could get on the road at 6:00 for Seoul. The only time we saw our apartment this weekend (besides tonight), was when we were sleeping in on Friday! It was a nice getaway though.

Make-up area in the hallway of our hotel.

Our Seoul trip was a rough start, but it ended up being AMAZING!! We loved every minute after the seminar. After the seminar we found our way to the Seoul Station to buy our train tickets for Sunday. Once we had the tickets we took the subway into Myeongdong. We had to find a hotel to stay in. The first two we looked at were completely booked. Well, one of them had one more room available but it didn't have a bed... deal breaker! The 3rd one we found had 1 room available! It had 3 twin beds in it! Hello giant bed! The guy gave us a nice discount too since there was only 2 of us. After a couple hours of rest we ventured out into the crazy shopping world of Myeongdong. It's one of the most popular shopping areas in Seoul. It really was crazy! There was so much to see! Nicole was able to buy "I <3 Korea" shirts for her boys back in BR. We saw so many Psy socks too! That's just a fun phrase to say. We even found Snoopy & the dog cafe without even trying! We didn't go to the cafe, but we will next time! After exploring the area, we watched a movie & went to bed. And got a wonderful night of sleep!

This morning we went to the Namsan Seoul Tower!! That was fantastic too! We checked out of our hotel & walked to the tower. First, we took a slanted elevator up. Then we took a cable car up the mountain. Then we went up some stairs. And we finally made it to the bottom of the tower! Yes, the bottom. We purchased tickets for the Teddy Bear Museum & Observatory. The Teddy Bear Museum was adorable & entertaining. After that we went up to the Observatory Deck. We had the most amazing views of Seoul. Full 360 degrees! There was even a "post office" up there where you could send postcards. Nicole was very thrilled to finally see postcards so we bought a few to take home with us! After the observatory deck, we headed back down & looked all the "locks of love". Then we ended our visit because we were getting hungry! There were restaurants there but we figured probably too expensive to be worth it.

Slanted elevator

Going up the slanted elevator

A view from the cable car

Hello N Seoul Tower!

Panoramic view from top the mountain/bottom of Namsan Tower

We made it to the observatory deck!

Pyongyang, North Korea is 193.6 km that way

N for Nicole!

Sitting in the "love chair" in front of just a few of the "locks
of love"; they were everywhere!

We found our way to Namdaemun Market & John found the exact sunglasses he's been looking for! He has been trying to find what he wants for 2 months now. And then there they were! $10. Win! He loves them. As for food, we ended up caving in & got McDonald's. We got the 1955 burger! We wonder if they have that in the states...?

Then we got on a train & made it home a couple of hours later! What a wonderful weekend away. We hope you enjoy all of the pictures!

Beautiful fountain in Myeongdong!

A Quiznos next to a 7-11. How did we
get to America?!

Back at Seoul Station waiting for our train
when we're given this hat to wear; check out
those new shades!

Bulgogi burger @ McDonalds

Since we haven't posted a picture yet,
here is our new apartment building.
The Doll House. We are 2nd floor.

Holiday weekend

We've had another busy week! Even with a holiday that let us stay home on Thursday. 

Nicole got her bike back on Monday evening. Thanks to one of her part-time students, she was very hungry for some hamburgers so after a run to the store & the awesome market down the street, she made some bacon burgers and John was excited when he got home from work. He didn't eat lunch earlier! It was also his school's first day on the new curriculum. Monday was the start of a rough week!
John has a slightly different school schedule now that the curriculum has changed. On MWF he works from 1:30-8:00 with 3 2-hour classes; on TTh he works from 2:30-9:00 with 2 3-hour classes. 

By the end of Wednesday we were both exhausted! Nicole's coworkers took advantage of not having to go into work the next day by hanging out by the river after work. That's when she found out there's a "killer" tick around South Korea. There have been a few reported cases of death by this tick. It has a poisonous bite with symptoms of sudden high fever, diarrhea, vomiting, and organ failures. We probably won't be hanging out by the river too late anymore. The fatality rate of this killer tick is low but it's also new.

On a much lighter note, Thursday we had the day off! It was South Korea's Memorial Day. We did much of nothing! It was fantastic & really helped us to unwind from the major stress & exhaustion we've been feeling since we moved. We did get up early to go to the store for some needed food but we were back home by 11:00. On our way back home there was a little girl about 3 years old running around the sidewalk with her dad. When she saw us she got really excited & ran towards us. She pointed her finger out to touch Nicole's leg & started jumping up & down like she won something. It was so adorable & hilarious! We were laughing the rest of the way home. After a lazy day of laying in bed & playing some games, we went to work out with our friend. It was a long & rough workout! Nicole got a little dizzy but her body was just adjusting. Afterwards, we went home to take some showers & eat some beef! We love our beef dinners.

Friday we had to return to work. But at least it was Friday! Nicole is "official" to South Korea. She received a free drink at Cafe Pascucci after getting 9 stamps on her card. The 10th drink is free! When Nicole got off of work she was excited to bike back home... but she had ANOTHER flat tire! The same one! So she had to walk home. It took almost an hour for her to walk home. It didn't help that she had old-lady legs from the workout the day before. John's arms & Nicole's legs were hurting bad. We are quite a pair. Later we went out with some of Nicole's coworkers that night & had some fun.

Saturday was a lazy & relaxing morning. We had to go to the 7-Eleven down the street to get ourselves energy drinks before we did anything. We explored around Time World for a bit since we live right next to it now! It's different in the day time. We found a pole fitness place! Nicole was very excited. After the discovery we went to eat a late lunch at Isaac Toast - pretty delicious sandwiches! Then we went to Smoothie King & headed to Emart for a few random items we needed. (Keep in mind we are still very sore from our workout on Thursday & John's workout on Friday). We got back home & relaxed some more. Then we got to work on our apartment! From 8:30 to 11:30 we were cleaning, unpacking, & rearranging. It amazed us how disgusting the person who lived here before us left things. But now our apartment looks SO MUCH BETTER!! We are satisfied.

Today we've had a relaxing day. Not much to do after last night but enjoy our clean, organized & spacious apartment. We were both finally feeling more recovered from workouts. Still some pain but we can at least function normally. John decided he was going to go workout again. Knowing that the workout would be all running, Nicole decided to stay home & give her legs more recovery time. This evening we went out to eat at a new restaurant : Dino Meat Grill House. All you can eat good quality meat. Just fantastic. We all love meat! It was a good end to the weekend & now we must go to bed for another stressful work week! We anticipate that once June is over our work stress levels will go down.

Next weekend we are taking a trip to Seoul. We decided to pass on this weekend due to the holiday. We are going to Myeongdong to see the N Seoul Tower & the dog cafe. We can't wait!

Our apologies for the lack of pictures this week. But there are sure to be MANY next weekend after our trip to Seoul!



Here are some things we learned about Korea this week:
-South Korea is ranked 13th when it comes to amount of cigarettes consumed per year. In comparison, USA is ranked 51st.
-Koreans have a fear of the number 4. It's pronunciation is closely related to word that means death. In many elevators, you will see that the buttons will say 1, 2, 3, F, 5, 6...
-There are so many cats roaming around the streets because you are considered cursed if you kill a cat.

We've moved... again!

It's been a couple of weeks since our last post because we had a lot going on. We are beyond exhausted from the past 8 days. Mostly because we've learned that thinking logically in Korea will get you nowhere. It's now a joke for us that we frequently use.

Last week we both went to get our health checks so that we can get our ARC cards. Finally! We haven't gotten them yet but it shouldn't be more than two weeks, tops. Once we get those we can get phones and Nicole can get a debit card and we can both start transferring money back to our USA bank accounts. We're tired of this waiting game & we just want it to be done.

Last week was a decent week for both of us. We were very excited for our move to our new apartment. We moved in last Sunday (May 26). Where we live now is Galma-dong. We are loving our new apartment. We still have a few things to get but we've already accumulated a lot. We even have a futon for our extra bedroom. Free and comfortable futon = awesome! Some rearranging and unpacking and cleaning still needs to be done but we are working on all of that a little bit each day.

This past week was a rough week for both of us. We were exhausted from the move & all that we had to do last Sunday. John ended up getting a cold from the dust & cleaning supplies that engulfed our apartment. Thankfully he is mostly over it now. On top of his cold it rained all day Monday & Tuesday; of course we didn't have umbrellas until Monday evening. We're surprised both of us aren't very sick. John did a lot of running around to get random errands during the week while also trying to get extra sleep to kick his cold. Halfway through the week he also ran out of deodorant & Korea doesn't use/sell it. Nicole spent about an extra 2 hours each day getting to & from work for several reasons: trying to figure out bus routes, a flat tire on her bike, & having to be at work early most days for Parent-Teacher Interviews. Have we mentioned that we're completely drained? Also, we didn't have internet until Thursday night in our new apartment so getting any other work done while we were at home was near impossible. At this point in time we are just happy that the week is over & that we've had a pretty relaxing weekend.

A map of some of the bus stops in Daejeon. This is 1 of 8
different bus maps. There are different bus routes on each &
they all are this busy or more.

We've learned a lot about the bus system here in Daejeon but still not enough! There are just way too many routes that go all over, yet only 2-4 manage to go anywhere near Nicole's school. We're still trying to figure out the best bus route. Especially now that her bike is still in the shop we took it to to get fixed. The bus caused a lot of stress & wasted time this week. Not what either of us needed!


Despite the crazy week we've had, we have enjoyed a few new bars & restaurants. We went to a new bar called Dada & it was amazing. It didn't smell like smoke! We also went to the ever-so-popular foreign bar Yellow Taxi for the first time. We went to an International Food Festival & had food from Pakistan, France, Uzbekistan, & more. We ate at a restaurant with "hangover soup" - a little bit spicy for Nicole's taste but it was still delicious. We discovered 2 new marketplace areas. We're still always discovering new places.

In other news... John opened up a bank account here! He gets his first full paycheck on Monday. We found out Smoothie King is walking distance from our apartment & enjoyed having that a couple of times this week. John had a minor crash with his bike (no injuries or bike malfunctions, just a bruise). Nicole got some free postcards & clothes from a friend who organized a "clothing exchange". We received some new needed items for cheap. And we booked our tickets to Thailand today!!

We are going to Thailand during our summer "vacation". It's only a week long, but that's long enough for us to have some adventures in another country. We are going with a couple of our friends. We're so excited & our countdown has officially begun. 54 days until vacation!

An assortment of cookies
Nicole received for
Teachers Day.

The giant vase of orchids
from one of Nicole's
student's mom.

Giant Hershey bar!

Bath essentials for
Teachers Day.

Drinking our delicious
Japanese liquor.

These tasted exactly
like macaroni & cheese!

Soda stealing John's attention.

Strange statue outside
of an Italian restaurant.

M&Ms in a Skittles box?