아 바 타!

Also known as "Avatar!" We just got back from seeing it in IMAX 3D and it was amazing! If you see it in regular 2D, you're just missing out. Don't do it, man. 


James Cameron overdid the political/social undertones just a bit. It didn't really distract from the movie too much, but there were a couple of moments that I had to say, "Really, James? REALLY?"


All in all, great movie. I wanted to get some pics of Marc and I in our superhot 3D glasses, but there wasn't enough time. You see, Marc bought these tickets a week ago (yes, we had to get them a week in advance) and at the time the "evening" showing was 8:45--so I guess it was just assumed that it was the same time tonight. WRONG! Marc pulled out the tickets as we were leaving and I glanced at them and said...well, shouted... "8:05?!??? It starts at 8:05???!?!?!?" I looked at the time and it was already 8:10. We got to the theater around 8:25. Luckily, we didn't miss too much.... super-long previews at this theater. Sigh.


All of the movie theaters here have assigned seats, which is nice. Since we were late, one of the employees showed us to our seats... he looked at the ticket, went up one side and pointed us aaaaaalll the way down to the other side of the aisle. So after crawling over about 20 people I got to the other end and realized the guy showed us the wrong seats. I walked back around and realized by myself that our seats were right where we'd started from. Sigh again.


Time for sleep. Goodnight!

Oh, Vacation, How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

Today was the last day of our December session, so now I have FIVE glorious days off! And I am going to do NOTHING. That's right, N-O-T-H-I-N-G. Marc still has to work, which means even BETTER vacation! ;-) 

I've been downloading lots of movies lately, one in particular that one of my coworkers mentioned called "Dead Snow". It's about Nazi zombies. I'm a little bit excited about watching it. Seriously! I just might finish the Rocky movies too, and maybe even start The Godfather. Or maybe I'll read some books! Oh dear, so many choices, what's a girl to do?

Here's some pictures of my classes today. They're all high school seniors (they graduate in February so YBM lets them start taking classes now) but they're really great. I think I'm going to miss them a little bit. We played Scrabble and ate donuts. Well, they ate the donuts that I provided. They also kicked my ass in Scrabble--but in my defense, they were in teams of 2 or 3 AND I let them use their electronic dictionaries (note to self--next time, no dictionaries). 

Elementary class--Boys vs Girls

I'm pretty sure these two are besties. The girl on the right always tightly covered her mouth when she spoke so I'm not sure if she can actually speak English. She can, however, grunt and gesture.

Look at the beautiful symmetry!

Helen, Hye Rim, Michel, Alex, and Joe

Intermediate class--I caught them with their mouths full, heehee.

Oh my, who is that smokin' hottie? She looks a little crazy-eyed. Oh wait, that's just the sleep deprivation.

I'm gonna head off, time to watch Sweeney Todd--g'night all!

Christmas Eve and Other Musings

Merry Christmas from Korea! None of that "Happy Holidays" crap here, just straight up Merry Christmas

(Every time I try to type Christmas, I type my name first. It reminds me of when I was in kindergarten and we were making Christmas cards for our parents and I couldn't quite read yet. The teacher had already written "Merry Christmas" on the cards, but since I couldn't read, I thought "Christmas" was supposed to be my name. I told the teacher that she spelled my name wrong and she said, "Aw, honey, that says Merry Christmas!")

Marc and I had a nice little Christmas, just the two of us. We listened to Christmas music, made cookies, a Christmas Eve dinner, and just relaxed.

Christmas Eve dinner of apples, crackers, and cheese

My oven

Marc modeling his new man-bag that I got him

(We're a little tired, it's after midnight and I'd been awake since 5am)

And now I'm writing to you (with Chere's delicious cookies next to me)!

Now I've made loads of mashed potatoes to take to Marc's work Christmas party. I must bid you adieu. Have a great Christmas everyone!

A familiar sound

So, I'm sitting at work, listening to Rush Limbaugh when he takes a caller from New Orleans. Of course, the lady starts talking and its classic New Orleans accent. I thought, wow, I really miss that. I know I haven't actually lived in New Orleans for a long time, but I did grow up there for a while and the majority of my family is from there. I guess it just felt nice to hear something familiar like that. Just thought I would share, besides, I personally haven't posted anything here since Christina arrived so.....Hi from Marc :-P

FAIL

So. Remember that whole "we're going to see Avatar tonight in IMAX 3D!" thing that I mentioned earlier? Well.

Our movie started at 8:45 and since the theaters here have assigned seats, we mosied on up around 8:40. We were told to wait, the manager was coming. Hrm. Ok. Well, the manager came up and we walked over with a small group of 5-6 people--of course we had no idea what was going on. After a couple of minutes, the other people in the group disappeared into the theater and we were left standing out like the poor little waegookins that were are.

Well, after about 10 minutes (I guess they were looking for their best English-speaker) someone finally told us that the movie was broken and did we want to see it on the normal screen or get a refund. We got a refund (especially since the IMAX tickets are $16 each! Twice the regular movie price. ).

Now, this normally wouldn't be so bad, except that A) we already tried to see it yesterday, and B) we wasted 2.5 hours that could have been spent at home, relaxing. Oh well. Hopefully the IMAX movie will be working again soon and we can see it.

All I Want for Christmas is an Alabama Winter

Too cold here, you guys. Too cold.


Marc and I saw Ninja Assassin last night--don't worry, it wasn't our first choice (but it wasn't bad!);) We wanted to see Avatar, but both the IMAX 3D and regular 3D showing were sold out all night and we didn't want to see it on a regular screen. We did, however, buy tickets to see it tonight in IMAX 3D--SO excited! I've never seen a real movie in IMAX before, only those weird under the sea or in space type documentaries that always make me nauseous.


In case you haven't heard, I'll be home in Birmingham for about 2.5-3 weeks in March. Marc will not be able to come with me, due to lack of vacation time and we have those darned kitties, too.


There's a park downtown with lots of pretty Christmas lights, we're going to try to take some pictures there tonight. Hopefully I'll get some good ones that I can post later.

Oi!

Another weekend is over, folks. However, this week is a 4-day week, and next week is only 2 days! And Friday is Christmas! Woohoooo!


I've already gotten Marc his Christmas gifts: a new video game (Dragon Age: Origins), D&D stuff (miniatures and dungeon tiles), and something else that he supposedly doesn't know about (but it's going to replace something he's been using for like 10 years or something).


Christmas in Korea is not nearly is big as it is in the US (or Canada or England, etc). My students are so surprised to hear that I've bought 3 gifts for Marc for Christmas... most of them only give/get 1, if that. However, nearly every business has a little Christmas tree that they've put up and Christmas music is playing in a lot of places. The favorite holiday of most Koreans is Lunar New Year (seollal). It's a 3-day holiday for family and honoring ancestors. Children get money from their parents (which is why it's usually the favorite holiday).


Also, no work parties (at least for me):-( Strangely enough, Marc's old job (same company as me, different location) is providing a Christmas dinner at a hotel for the teachers; my location is doing zip. I'm not really sure why the 2 schools have such differences, but whatever. Marc's new job, Moonkkang, is having a big Christmas potluck. They've rented out a bar and everyone's bringing something; we're bringing good old fashioned mashed 'taters--Southern style!


Well, I'm out. Have to wake up at 5 for work :( Happy almost Christmas!

Walmart

You're probably thinking, "Why is she posting about Walmart?", either because it's your favorite store or because you hate it with such passion that you're not sure if you can associate with me after this.

I miss Walmart. Really! I mean, Korea has E-Mart and Home Plus, but they're not Walmart!

 First of all, we needed a new telephone. SOMEONE, I don't know who (and certainly not me!) plugged it in without a converter and it mysteriously stopped working.  We went to Home Plus to get a new phone, and the cheapest cordless phone was like $80. What??!? The cordless phone I got from Walmart was only $25! I even asked a sales girl, "Telephone? Cordless? Cheap?" She went to her manager and asked and she came back with, "Sorry, no telephone cordless cheap--only this" and pointed to the $80 phone. We ended up with the cord phone ($15, baby!), and now I feel like I'm living in the 1980's with my phone cord that reaches 5 meters.

Second, where's the cheap stuff? Sometimes it seems like E-Mart and Home Plus just put on a cheap face to suck people in and make them think they're getting a good deal.  With Walmart, everything is as it seems--CHEAP. 

Third, Christmas. Hello??!?!? It's CHRISTMAS! I went to Emart around the beginning of December to look for Christmas decorations, and there's just a little set-up in the middle of the floor with maybe 2-3 tables of stuff. Not even shelves! The few things they did have were so much more expensive than I would pay at Walmart! Oh well, thank goodness for Korean dollar stores--the only thing I had to buy from evil Emart was lights.

Finally, I would like to leave you with this little gem: People of Walmart

Korean Living

Like Southern Living, get it? Anyway.

I told you I'd update with pictures of our new place, so here I go. Marc is officially working at Moon Kkang English School now, "the most famous children's hagwon in Daegu!" my adult students tell me. They gave us a really nice apartment and right now we pay half the rent but when I start working there at the end of March, it will be free!

We used to live in Samdeok-dong, Jung-gu (a Dong [heehee] is a small section within a Gu, which is a larger small section within the city)--basically the downtown area. Now we live in Beomeo-dong, Suseong-gu--the affluent part of the city. (Does anyone else hear the Jefferson's theme?) I love our new apartment because it's like a REAL American apartment! With rooms and everything! Our other one had rooms too, but the living room area was more like a narrow hallway. Now we have a nice living room that opens up into the kitchen. And a laundry room. And a closet!

Okay, so, pictures...

Main bedroom

The closet!

Our miniscule bathroom

The kitty bathroom

The LAUNDRY ROOM!

Our awesome living room and kitchen

Of course, since it's Christmastime we have a cute little Christmas tree...

It's only about 3 feet high, but anything bigger was more that we wanted to pay. As you can see, there's a little angel under it, along with an Xbox controller and game--no mistaking this is the Marc & Christina Prados household ;-)

Okay well that's all for now--I'll update soon with some Christmas cheer!

Back from the dead... maybe

Sorry for ignoring you all for so long. I keep making such empty promises that I'll update, and I never follow through. I hope you can forgive me.

My last post was June 19--honestly, not much has happened. We went to Japan, we moved into a new apartment, Marc started his new editing job (it's going really well, by the way), and we hosted a housewarming party!

In other news, it's COLD! Since it's so cold, I've been taking a taxi to work rather than walk (it's about a 20 minute walk, and the taxi is only about $2).

I had the unfortunate experience of seeing a dead accident victim in the road on my way to work yesterday... police and ambulance were there, but they were making no effort to cover the body. I'd like to think it was because it had JUST happened, but that really didn't seem the case and I've heard stories of how they don't really rush to hide bodies in accidents. It looked like the guy was either walking or riding a bike and was hit while starting to cross the road. I didn't see another car either, so I think it was a hit and run. I was highly disturbed and almost immediately burst into tears, especially when my taxi driver STOPPED TO STARE at the poor guy! I yelled at him to go, and thankfully he listened.

Ah well. Sorry to be such a downer. I'll put up pics of the apartment and our Christmas tree later :)