A Thanksgiving "Feast" in Korea

Thanksgiving has come and gone here in the Land of the Morning Calm. Marc and I are thrilled that this was the last one on this side of the planet! We hadn't intended on cooking any special food, but at the last minute I decided to make a little something special.

I made pecan-crusted chicken breasts, mashed sweet potatoes, and green beans. That's about as close to Thanksgiving cooking as I can get without having an oven. Tomorrow (Saturday) we're (probably) going to a cafe downtown that's serving up some Thanksgiving goodies; turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and apple and pumpkin pie.

Oh, something I learned while making my pecan-crusted chicken: dried parsley can get worms if it gets too old. I learned this AFTER I added it to the pecans. Luckily, I had plenty of pecans so I just threw out that first mixture, and you know what? The chicken turned out just fine without the totally useless herb known as parsley!

I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving. See you in 4 months and 27 days!

Oh man, I almost forgot!

Okay, I can't believe I forgot to mention this in my last post. Be warned, it involves poop.

I teach elementary and middle school students, ages 8-14, roughly.

Two weeks ago, an 11-year-old student POOPED HIS PANTS. IN THE CLASSROOM. Luckily, it was during the few minutes before class started. My poor manager had to deal with it; I didn't know about it until I got to my classroom and the smell hit me like a 2x4 to the face. Surprisingly, the other students were gracious enough--we just opened up the windows and the door and turned on the A/C.

When I asked my manager about it the next day, she said she only found him because she was trying to figure out where the horrendous smell was coming from (it had permeated both floors) and her nose led her to my classroom. She called each student out individually to ask if they had a problem, and the particular boy in question refused to get up. Finally she made him get up and he had diarrhea all down the back of his pants. The poor kid was so embarrassed he just sat there, in his poop pants!

He tried to say he fell in the toilet (squatters, remember?) but his mom told the manager the truth. He also hasn't been back, not that I blame him.

So, I just thought I would share that little event. Ta-ta for now!

What day is it?

Right, so, as per my usual intro, let me apologize for failing in the upkeep of this blog. Lots has been going on over the last few months, and if you're lucky, you know what it's all about already.

So anyway, just a few highlights:

• Josh and Kate came to visit us for a few days back in August! It was great being with family and really helped us feel a little less detached from the "real world". 
• Rachel came to visit us in September! Again, it was fantastic to see people from our "previous" life in America ;) We travelled all over Korea--and there are lots of photos on Facebook to prove it. 
• We went to Singapore and Malaysia during the first week of October. Now that was a TRUE vacation, as in we didn't do a single touristy thing. We flew into Singapore, stayed overnight at a hostel, caught a bus early the next morning to travel 4 hours to the ferry port in Malaysia. From there we took a 2-hour ferry ride to Tioman Island (Pulau Tioman) where we did nothing but lounge around, sleep, and read books. It was FANTASTIC.

Earlier this month we met with our manager that handles contract stuff, and we've got an official going home date of April 22nd! I can't tell you how excited this made us--there's actually a light at the end of the tunnel! Not that our time in Korea has been bad, because it's really been great this past year; it's just time. We miss our friends, our families, and Marc's ready to make use of that fancy Master's degree he has :)

Here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure: 

Dr. Fish!

Dr. Fish! (and Josh and Kate)

Lunch at the shabu-shabu restaurant near our apartment

Now here are some photos from our Malaysia trip:

View of the beach from our porch

Looking down from the porch 

Beautiful view from the porch 

Who's that sexy guy?

Our chalet

It's a monkey! Next to our chalet!

So, I hope you enjoyed this update. Maybe I'll get better, maybe I won't. We'll see :)