Day 6

Happy Monday! Today is day 6 of my juice fast (feast as one website called it) I am still going strong! I had one of the best runs I have ever had this weekend! I also have been going to bed at 9 or 10 and being completely exhausted! I wake up at about 7 or 730 by myself and I dont even need coffee to clear my head! It is fantastic! I have my morning warm lemon water and get going! It feels great! I can't believe I have lasted this long! I am proud of myself for the accomplishment. This weekend was fun and full of activities! Friday I went rock climbing....well it was more like scaling a wall on rocks. but it was so fun! I was really sore saturday morning when I woke up! Saturday I had to run 5 miles so I got up and watched an episode of Desperate Housewives (yes I am finally catching up with the seasons) and drank a juice and lemon tea. Then I went for my 5 mile run! I did a 8:40/mile and the best part was....i wasnt even tired! :-) I had planned on meeting Jo at the open market at 12 to uy more produce to juice because I had run out. So my post run juice was not as tasty as the other and went down kinda hard....hahahaha! She was running late so I decided to walk to home plus and get some tea I had been wanting to get and that they only sold at home plus. So I walked about another 4 miles on saturday and met jo at the market for some delicious produce! After leaving the market I was feeling kinda grumpy because I needed to have another rush of calories so I went home and juiced. I invited my friend Jessy (korean name jeongbae) to enjoy it with me. I blended in some forzen pineapple and spinach to make it a little thicker and it tasted like ice cream! it was so so so so good! After drinking that juice I went to Big sale mart to pick up some celery and greens that I couldnt get at the market and then hung out at minsus shop for awhile! It was great! I went home and had another juice and decided to go to the sauna! It was fantastic! I got a full body scrub and facial! (of course it cost only $25) I also sat in the steam room and hot pools....it made my body very very very happy! I went home and went to bed because I was completely dead!! When i woke up on sunday I felt energized! It was my cross training day so I decided to take a walk to the lake and starbucks to have some herbal tea! I walked 4 miles and journaled at starbucks for about an hour! It was a beautiful morning! I then went with Jo to cafe Hau so we could show them how to bake the cupcakes!! :-) It was a fun day! I really enjoyed being there and making new friends! The best part is they had an amazing juicer! So I made some delicious juice and could enjoy the day with new friends! Around 7 I was starting to get really hungry and being around baked goods and watching people enjoying them was starting to get to me so I decided it was time for me to go home! I went home and made some delicious rainbow juice (actually I drank 2 because I was feeling extra hungry) and then drank some bed time tea. I tucked myself into bed at 9 and I was out by 915! What a great weekend! I woke up this morning with a massive head ache but I got out of bed and drank somelemon water to wake up and had some juice. It was good and energizing. I took a shower and actually had time to facetime with mom and dad before I left for school! I have to confess I am wearing my workout pants at school today but the best part is today I have been complimented on being fashionable because I am wearing my north face jacket! I love Korea! After school today I think I am going to go to boxing! I am looking forward to that. I haven't been in awhile and I was going strong for a month and hoping I can get back into it! Ah there is a test today! Rice cakes...my co workers have just put out some fresh warm rice cakes and they smell amazing! I decided I am going to go home during 4th period and make some more juice. So now I am sipping on my lunch juice so that I am not tempted to eat any of these delicious cake!! :-) I watched a documentary called "Fat, sick and dead" about a man who did 60 days of straight juicing and how he changed his whole body and is now leaner and healthy! :-) I am downloading another documentary called "food inc." and I am going to watch it today! :-) OK time to get back to work! xoxox

Jessi

Day 2

Today is day 2 of my juicing cleanse! I am feeling full of energy! I am drinking more greens than I have eaten in a while! This is great! I have had at least 2 green smoothies or juices a day! I am trying to mix it up with the carrot juice so I am not just having so much sugar! I am afraid of my blood sugar spiking. The people said to blend in spinach into the fruit juice to keep you from having a blood sugar spike. :-) But so far I am feeling really great! I ran 4.5 miles last night and was only supposed to run 3.5. I am getting there! I have also been drinking a ton of water. I increased my water intake and making sure I am hydrated. I am going to make some V8 juice tonight. I think with all the running and stuff I will need to get a little sodium in my diet. This way I dont have cramps or anything!

Besides the cleanse today is white day. This is the day in Korea where men give women candy. Valentines day is for women to give men candy and so on March 14 the men give to women. It is kinda cute but I think if you dont have a girlfriend than this time can be very depressing. I got some candy from my students and some of the male teachers at school which was really sweet! Everything else is going well. I have 7 classes on thursdays now which means that I am teaching every class on thursday. This is a lot but luckily there a one hour break for lunch everyday so I dont have to work all the way through the day! I have 15 minutes left of school and I am writing this before I leave. Today is volleyball and I am actually really looking forward to getting back in the gym and playing. It has become my strength and conditioning time. :-) any way it seems as though it is time to go home! :-) I wasted enough time writing this so that I can go!! Running and volleyball time!! :-)

Miss all of you and love you very much! xoxoxox

It's been awhile!

It's been awhile since I wrote on here! I am back in the swing of things at school and I have little break time this semester! Which is actually a good thing because the school day is going by faster and I actually feel like I am working instead of just sitting all day! :-) Today is the first day of my 10 day juicing cleanse! I am feeling good, but is only 10 am! Ha! I have been reading a lot about healthy living and cleansing is a big part of maintenance in a healthy lifestyle. So I am challenging myself to a 10 day juice cleanse. I am also in my 3rd week of my half marathon training! I am feeling good I had a good 6 mile run on saturday! It was encouraging. I am so glad it is wednesday and I have finished the big part of my week. I am teaching 14 hours at my first school and so that usually means easier days on thursday and friday at my second school. Also, when I was at school last week they told me every friday there will be club activities during 5 &6 periods. Which means no matter what I will have off those classes! :-) Last week I only taught one class on friday! It made for a very great end to the week!  Now I finally have a break! I can finish typing this post!

Let's see....News..... I am starting to sell my cupcakes at a bakery in Busan. My friend Jo and I made a tasting menu for Cafe Hau in Busan. They are actually looking to sell vegan items on their menus and so I tweeked a few recipes to make them vegan friendly! I made double chocolate cupcakes with 4 different flavors of vegan frosting. I am also going to make the pumpkin spice muffins or cupcakes if we decide to put some frosting on top. ;-) They really liked the baked goods and so Sunday morning we are going to Busan to teach them how to make these items in their kitchen. I am so excited about this! I can't wait! I am hoping this will further my hopes in opening a bakery in Korea.

I have to go buy some cleaning supplies in a few minutes because I have a girl coming to clean my house this afternoon! I couldn't be more excited about it. She is charging me 30,000 won ($30) for 3 hours of work. She will even do my laundry! I think that is a pretty sweet deal! :-) I also could use someone to really scrub my apartment about twice a month. I think I could spare 60,000 won for a sparkling house and help with my laundry. Also, I am hoping after today she can come during the day so I can come home to a clean apartment and clean laundry! That would be a dream!

It looks like the rain has cleared up a bit and hopefully it will be clear by the time I leave school! I have a 4 mile run today I am going to do while she is cleaning. I am then going to go to the jjimjilbang (public shower) and get a scrub to relax so that I am not in her way! ;-)

I had a volleyball tournament this last weekend. It was really fun to hang out with volleyball people again! I had not seen them in a long time and I got to meet Joonhan's (the pe teacher) niece! Mingyeong! She was so precious! :-) Even though her and I couldnt really talk to each other we had a wonderful time playing with the ipad and she colored some pictures for her uncle! It was really sweet! I know I say this all the time but I really love how involved families are in Korea. It is just so wonderful! Makes me really happy! :-) OK I have to get my cleaning supplies and then finish up some lessons for next week so I am prepared come Monday! I miss everyone at home and hope that everyone is well! XOXOXOX

2013

So 2013 has been a crazy time! haha! I haven't posted in awhile....I have since celebrated the new year and been to Thailand! Thailand was absolutely magical! I loved being in the warm environment. Also, because I have been in Korea for so long I didn't realize how different other Asian countries are! I plan on going back and traveling in Cambodia and Vietnam. I also would love to go back to the Islands. I liked inland Thailand but I fell in love with Phi Phi island! It was fantastic! I think I could live there for sure! I could run on the beach in the morning, eat fresh fruit everyday for less than a dollar, the weather was perfect and the people were so welcoming and fun! Needless to say I had the BEST vacation!! When I returned to Korea things got crazy again as i returned to work! Today marks the first day of my Spring vacation! I am very excited about it! I just attended my schools graduation ceremony! It is so interesting to see the differences in culture during ceremonies I have participated in at home! For instance we don't have middle school graduations where I am from but I am sure they have them somewhere....but at a normal middle school I don't think you would ever see middle school boys dancing to a pop song with the moves made up by their teachers....but they did and they had won at the school festival. :-) It was sweet....I guess it could be compared to a pep rally skit at one of our middle schools. I am kinda sad though because I loved these groups of 3rd graders. They are so stinking cute and sweet! It will be sad to be here without them!

On a different note mom and dad come to Korea in ONE WEEK!!! Next friday they will be in Korea! I can't believe it is finally here and it is actually happening!! What a great feeling! I am going to get my hair done on monday and at this hair salon there is a tanning bed....YES I am going to tan while i am there...I know it sounds dumb but there are a few things that I love and tanning is one of them! It makes me feel good about myself so I am going to do it! :-) haha! I have only made a few plans for when mom and dad are in town and I am coming up short on things to do while they are here! haha! I am thinking about going to daegu with them I think mom would like the shopping~~ I am going there on tuesday with Gayeon. Also, while mom and dad are here her family is taking us to eat at a restaurant near by my house! I am so excited for them to meet my parents! :-) One night too my girl friends are going to go to a wine bar and then to eat shabu shabu (spring rolls) with mom and dad so they can meet them! :-) This makes me really happy! There are a lot of good things going on right now and I am so happy that I can share my life with mom and dad!

Tomorrow I will start a no coffee week. I am challenging myself to only drink tea and water for a whole week! Let's hope I can stick with it! :-) I hope all of you are having a great week and I will blog from home this week and post pics from my trip! :-)
XOXOX

monday and tuesday!

I think I have a case of the Mondays today.....I woke up really late and barely made it to school by 830. (I woke up at 8 am and it takes about 15 minutes to walk to school) I had a nice but exhausting weekend! Friday night started by going to boxing and then to dinner with the girls in Masan. When I say girls I mean my 2 close friends Rebecca (Bex) and Kelly. They are both from England and I have gotten very close with them. We are like a family and we meet every Tuesday night for drinks and dinner just to make sure we socialize during the week and can see each other! :-) I find that it has really been something I look forward to and enjoy having the quality time with some really great girls! Anyway, we went out for a nice meal on Friday night and then we ended up staying up really late just laughing and talking...but Kelly and I had to get up really early on Saturday because she had an eye appointment (she had Lasik about 3 weeks ago so she had to have a check up) and I wanted to go to H&M because they now have one in Busan!! EXCITING!!! So we got up a 8 am (we went to sleep at 4 am) and got our selves on a bus to Busan. The bus took FOREVER because the traffic was really terrible! I also had to be back in Changwon at 1 pm for my dance practice (yes I had dance practice on Saturday). So Kelly went to her eye appointment while I went to starbucks to buy us some fuel for the day and then we went to the big department store and to H&M. I have to say I am so excited they are there! I can actually buy clothes and SHOES there! This is very exciting to me! I had adopted an orphan to buy Christmas presents for and so I went to H&M because they have a lot of low priced and nice looking scarf and glove sets. I bought her a hot pink scarf and some matching gloves. I think she will really like it! I also bought her a few little cosmetic things that all the little girls like over here so she can feel pretty and special! :-) After running around in Busan, Kelly and I took the bus back and made it to my dance practice only 40 minutes late! I practiced for about 4 hours and then Kelly and I went to have something to eat since we hadn’t eaten anything really that day! So we ate some hot stone bibimbap and then went to my house to get some shoe because we had to hurry to her house to get ready for our night out. Bex was in a Choir performance with some other artist hat she works within the Art district. So Kelly and I went to watch the performance and then take her to dinner to celebrate! We went to Mexico (the Mexican restaurant in Masan) and had Sangria and chips. I had  a Mexican Salad that was really nice! It was a great evening We then went to my friends Café and had some drinks before heading to a foreign bar near Bex’s house to meet a few people and play some pool. After that we were all really tired so we decided to call it a night! I was so exhausted because I hadn’t slept much the night before and I ended up sleeping till 11:45 on Sunday! Haha! I never do that!! I was so happy but it took me awhile to wake up and actually get out of bed! But after getting out of bed I cleaned up my apartment and got stuff ready because Joanna and Lecia were going to come over to bake and eat dinner! We had decided to make those Vegan adventure cookies but ended up making, vegan adventure cookies, vegan oatmeal bars, vegan zucchini muffins, vegan mac &cheese and I made chicken breast with veggies and white wine in the crock pot. I had invited Bex and Kelly to eat with us and so I wanted to cook some meat for them and Lecia! It was so fun! We had everything cooking at the same time and we were sipping white and Lecia made some mulled wine! It was fabulous! It felt like Christmas time! I am so excited for next weekend too because I will be prepping for Christmas dinner! 

 

This week is going to be pretty great...I have a day off on Wednesday and Thursday is the school festival.  I will teach only 8 classes this week! That is EXCITING! I have dance practice on my day off which makes me unhappy but at least I don’t have to go to school! Today I am teaching 3 classes and we are watching The Grinch still so it should be good!

 

 

Since I haven’t posted this yet I will continue on and tell you about my Tuesday as well! Since we have off school tomorrow I probably won’t be updating my blog! So last night I didn’t make it to boxing because I had planned to meet Gerrard at 7:30 and our dance practice ended at 7:30 I had no time in between! Our dance practice went amazing! I remember all of the dance and actually the costumes are inappropriate but not as bad as I thought! Also, I actually felt like I had a workout because we did the dance full out like 7 times and I did it in high heels (man that was hard!). So I am kind of looking forward to the dance practice tonight and to get even better at the dance! After dance, I went to meet Gerrard and we talked for awhile and I had forgotten my Korean book so we couldn’t study! I learned a lot about him though! He was a Prison guard as his military service! I think that is so cool! What a way better job than a lot I hear about for these guys! He was picked to do that and he worked there. I also heard him play guitar and he is really good! It was nice to get to know him better and he is a very nice guy! I am glad to have a new friend! After I left him my friend Jessi (Korean name jongbae) and I asked if he wanted to come to my house for dinner. I was going to be making quinoa and kale salad with persimmon and a citrus dressing and stir fried veggies. I also heated up some chicken I had made for the girls on Sunday. He came over and we chatted for a long time! I even tried to make pudding with chia seeds and soy milk but it never set…I need to find a better recipe I think! After he left I was so tired so I went up to bed after washing my face (it took a lot of effort for me to do that and brush my teeth). I set my alarm but I could tell I would sleep really well. Which was the problem today! I over slept my alarm. I woke up at 8:40 and I am supposed to be at school at 8:30. I freaked out and I couldn’t figure if I should take a shower or not, but finally decided in my half sleepy mind that taking a shower would be worth the extra 5 minutes I would be late because I would be clean for today! It was a good thing I did because I finally got to school at 9 am…which I have to say waking up at 8:40, taking a shower and having to walk about ½ mile to school is pretty good! Today I didn’t really walk….it was more like running! I get to school and my co teacher was very sweet to me and was like “Jessi, please stop worrying its ok, take your time, calm down you are not in trouble!” on the phone because I was in tears bc I felt irresponsible! Anyway, I get to school and I take a moment to collect myself. My co-teacher put her hand on my shoulder and gave me a little pat and said “today is your lucky day. We are doing Friday’s schedule and since you don’t come to this school on Fridays you don’t have any classes today!!” I was so happy I almost cried again! J So here I sit at my desk and I can gain my composure and get ready for a night out with Kelly tonight! We are going to eat mussels at this fantastic place in Masan and have a little red wine because we don’t have to be at school tomorrow!! J Anyway, I am going to practice my dance now so that I can be even more ready for Thursday!

 

XOXOX

TGIF

Happy Friday! Wow I can't believe another week is over! The weeks and days are flying by! Before I know it will be second semester and I will have completed my second full year in Korea! I think it is going by so fast because I have found myself playing games, blogging, and looking up recipes for Christmas dinner on the internet instead of just looking through facebook and being a creeper! Ha~

So I have been at my other school since I come here on Thursdays and Fridays. We are not allowed to watch movies so instead we made the same things I made with the church classes except they had to write in English inside the card. I will post pictures of my students very unique and cute Santas after I write because my phone is currently charging on the other side of the room.

So let's see what has happened since my last post! Ah yes, so I am performing in a dance at the school festival next Thursday at my MTW school. I have tried many attempts not to perform (told them I couldnt miss the festival at my other school, said the uniform wouldn't fit, tried skipping out on practices, etc.) but it seems that they are really wanting me to do it because they have called and confirmed with my other school so I could attend, changed the uniform so that I could fit into it, and told me it didnt matter if I couldn't make all the practices because they understood I was very busy! So long story short, I am performing a kpop dance in hot pants for my students on next Thursday! Here is my problem with it....In Korean culture it is ok for women to wear booty shorts as long as they A: wear some kind of panty hose or stocking under them and B: if they are not exposing their shoulders or arms or chest.....or anything below the neck.....So what we are wearing is sparkly booty shorts with shear panty hose, a white long sleeve t-shirt and a tie......ok so that isnt even the main problem. The main problem is that we have to do some moves where when the Korean teachers do it because thye are so thin and have no hips, butt or curves they look cute like little girls doing a dance. When I get up there I look like I'm trying to do some nasty trashy dance. To be honest with you like dancing with my friends and stuff, but I don't ever want to do something like that in front of my students. I tried to do it with less effort so that my booty shaking was at a minimum but I got in trouble by the teacher and she was like No YOU MUST USE MORE HIPS....... :-( So Here you go Korea the junk in the trunk will be shaking.....

Ok enough of that venting.....

So I also got eye lash extensions done last weekend by my friend!! I am telling you right now I am not sure I ever want to go back to wearing mascara! These things are amazing! I wake up in the morning and I look ready to go! It is fabulous! Also, when I am working out and all kinds of sweaty I don't look as bad as I did before! I have been told that I now look like a Russian doll, which may not be a good thing, but I think looking like a doll is a compliment! :-) so I would suggest if you thought about doing it, go for it!! :-)

Anyway, there is not much more to tell about this week....Boxing is going well and I went 5 times this week! I am feeling really good! Today is my weigh in for the week so we will see if the dieting has paid off!! :-)

Here are all the creations from my students! What beautiful art work they made!!! :-) 

Case of the Mondays!

Haha! I am just kidding about having a case of the Mondays...I am actually really happy today! I had a really nice weekend and my students are watching "The Grinch" in my class today so it is a very very easy day!

This weekend I started it off with hanging with Kelly, Minsu and my K friend Jessi. We went to eat dinner and then we went to the movies! It was great! We went to sleep at like 3 am so we decided to sleep in saturday morning! We woke up at like 11 and decided to get dressed and go downtown. We went downtown to get some stuff because I had to teach at church! So we walked around and froze because it was -6 degrees! We went into a store that is similar to the dollar store to get a few things we needed for our projects and then decided to pop into the Hello Kitty Cafe for a warm drink before we continued our shopping!

The cute drinks at Hello Kitty

 

 

I love posing with the strawberry pillow!

 After a near meltdown in Alpha (A stationary store with aisles that are so small that two people cant walk down them at the same time) we went to the very busy department store becasue I needed to buy some make up! The make up I usually wear is about 30,000 won (26.00) but when we got there they were having a sale! I got my make up for 21,000 (17.00)! It made the whole trip to the very busy department store worth it! We then ventured to Lotte Mart to get some yeast because I needed to tryout my recipe for pizza. So we went there and it was of course extremely crowded! I couldn't wait to get home to my quiet and warm apartment! We had bought a bottle of wine and were going to settle in to prepare the activity for the kids, sip some wine and then make some home made pizza! We also wanted to make mulled wine, but to buy brandy at lotte mart it cost about 45.00 so we decided against it!

We made the cut outs for the kids and sipped some wine....it took us what felt like an eternity to cut all the little pieces needed for this project but it was really worth it!! Here is what we made with the Children's church

 

After we finished cutting out the papers we needed to get a few more things to make pizza so we went down the street to the shop. While we were in there we decided we needed to buy one more bottle of wine and went to the VERY VERY small alcohol section (we are talking two very tiny shelves to choose from) and guess what we found for 4,500 won (3.00)....YUP Brandy! So we decided with our pizza we would sip on some mulled wine! :-) We were very excited! So we had made the pizza dough a head of time and it was rising while we were at the store. When we returned it was perfect time to start to make our pizza.  Here are the pics from that night!  

 

After making the pizza we ate it and decided it was time to go to bed! We had to get up early for church the next morning. Sunday I woke up and went for a very frosty run! It was so so cold my joints hurt! I think I will be running in the boxing gym only until february! hahaha! After that we went to church and the kids LOVED the projects we did! We came home after church and made potato and leek soup and ate some left over pizza! We also made some Vegan Adventure cookies (the picture below)!! :-)

 

 

 

 

 

 

These cookies were so great! I am giong to make them again wednesday with Joanna! They are not only delicious but they have ZERO butter, eggs, processed sugar....only 100% maple syrup and 100%honey and oat flour (made from blending oats!) Also, I ordered vegan chocolate chips on iherb so even the chocolate chips were vegan! :-) I was very proud of myself! THey were a big hit at the ice rink when we went skating! They were all gone by the time we left! I made a few new friends because of my cookies! Kelly invited her friend Gerrard (heechil) to skate with us too! He's adorable! We all went to eat really warm soup and to drink a little soju after our skating! It was nice to eat something warm and delicious after being freezing on the ice! After we finished eating we went to a coffee shop to have keep the warm thing going! I really enjoyed talking to Gerrard and he agreed to help me with my Korean. So we are going tonight to have dinner adn practice our speaking! I am excited! He was so nice because where we were eating was one building over from where he lived, but he walked me about half a mile in the freezing weather to see me into a taxi. I really appreciate that about Korean men, they still have gentleman like qualities about them! I am really happy to make a new friend and to get to practice my Korean! :-)

 

I am so happy that my teaching is basically finished until after the winter vacation! I have my camp stuff prepared and the students will be doing a project for a lot of it! :-) I also only have to teach one week of camp instead of two! Here is a pic of my boy students watching The Grinch today! I get to leave at to stop by the post office on my way home, then I am off to boxing and then going to meet Gerrard. I hope I can make it through my workout tonight....I have been pretty tired lately!! :-) Here is to another great week! 3 weeks until winter vacation!! :-)