Food in Thailand

Some people might be disappointed in how little Thai food we actually ate. But coming from Korea where we have a lack of real western food for a good price as well as a lack of good Italian food near us, we couldn't help but take advantage of those options here. We did enjoy a few Thai dishes, but we also had our fair share of international cuisine. Take a look below at some of our favorite dishes.

Cheese Pizza at an Italian Restaurant

Pork Chop

Salmon...with teeny tiny bones to pick out- Oh well it was only an $8 meal

Megan's meal- Fries and a Strawberry-Mango Smoothie

Spicy Lobster flavored Lay's Stax- kinda weird but better than the alternative- seaweed flavored

Justin's Chili- first time he's had it since Christmas!

And the best burger he's enjoyed since Christmas

A calzone for Megan that even rivals her favorite calzone from Casa in Ft Wayne! 

Pork and potatoes with green curry and rice-Thai food! And of course a mango smoothie

Another Pork Chop

Chicken Cordon Bleu

Pineapple Frappes

Chicken Tenders (or according to the menu- Chicken Tunders)

Pork Fried Rice (you can tell we don't eat a lot of pork in Korea)

Ribs!

Sutherland Visit

It's hard to believe that we are already three weeks into Summer vacation. In those three weeks we have had my parents come and go, visited Jeju (while they were here!), and we are now wrapping up our time in Thailand.

Our time with my parents was fantastic! We spent a lot of time trekking across the city to see some of our various favorite spots and eat at our favorite restaurants and also spent a lot of time just sitting, talking, and playing games together. We couldn't have asked for a better week with them. I think a highlight for all of us was our quick trip to Jeju. Just a 40 minute flight away is the island known here as "the Hawaii of Korea." While I'm not sure it can really compare to Hawaii that closely (we'll let you know for sure after Christmas!!), it was definitely beautiful. We really only had one full day there and we spent it driving along the coast, stopping to see a few waterfalls, a traditional folk village, and our favorite - Sunrise Peak.

Sunrise Peak is a crater that was formed from a volcanic eruption and is now a hot-spot tourist attraction on the island. What we didn't know was that we would have to climb nearly 550 steps to reach the top on a cloudless, hot day. Sweating bullets, we finally made it to the top and found those steps more than worth the venture up. It was stunning.

The crater is in the background

view from the top of Sunrise Peak

One of our first glimpses of Sunrise Peak.

Why do times like these always have to pass by so quickly?  I guess in a way I'm thankful for that, because it means that we had such a great week together. Our goodbye was again hard and sad, but we'll see them in just 2 1/2 months.  I can't help but be grateful for the incredible parents Justin and I are both blessed with and their commitments to us as well as all of the many sacrifices they have made for us. It means the world to us that they are all willing and able to take the time and money to visit us in Korea. We LOVE sharing our lives here with them!

Summer is Here!

We are officially on Summer Vacation! My parents arrive from the States TONIGHT (they are currently somewhere over the Pacific Ocean), and our Summer adventures will begin full-speed!

School ended better than we probably could have anticipated. We each had great class parties and finished the year really loving our classes - what more could we ask for as first-year teachers than to truly love our students. It is good to be done, but at the same time it's hard to believe that we've completed a year already.

Thank you so much for all of your prayers and words of encouragement throughout this last year. Just a year ago we were planning for this great adventure, and now here we are fully immersed in our lives here, and fully loving where God has brought us. We are constantly amazed by God's goodness and the numerous ways He has blessed us here. From incredible friends, a Church full of passionate Christ-followers, a supportive school administration, helpful co-workers, and great place to live in this beautiful city, we are truly blessed.  You have all played a significant role in getting us here through how you have impacted our lives. We can't thank you enough!

Ecclesiastes 7:8 The end of a matter is better than its beginning

I leave you with another precious Timothy video. Welcome to the thought process of a 4-year-old who is building a block tower. I love this kid!

Dongbaek Island

One of our favorite spots to take people in Busan. It's a great place to go walking and has some spectacular views. You can even see a tiny bit of Japan from there on a clear day. We weren't even trying to match in this picture, but we made a pretty good Couple Set for not even trying!

Sand Festival

Every year there is a Sand Festival at Haeundae Beach, and this year the theme was the Cinema. We walked around the sculptures more than once and each time were amazed by how great the representations were of different movie characters. Another part of the festival included an air show from the Korean Black Eagle pilots. We also happened upon a Music/Dance festival on the beach one night, so I'll inclue some pictures of that as well.

Black Eagles

Welcome to the Sand Festival!

King Kong and Star Wars

Superman!

Lightning McQueen

Frankenstein

The Joker

Justin with Iron Man

Mr. Incredible - aka My Dad, of course ;)

Shrek and Donkey!

Sledding down a small dune. Unfortunately this was only for kids.

Justin and I on top of the dune a few days earlier

Tanya and I on top

Again with Tanya

This was a really cool drumming group - hopefully I can get a video up soon

Tanya kissing her favorite hero :)

Chinese Culture Festival

My good friend Tanya recently visited for two weeks, and it was such a blessing to share our life with her. She was very adventurous in exploring and eating Korean food (like baby octopus!!) on her own since Justin and I were in school for most of her time here. One of the things we went to was a Chinese Culture Festival. We were thankful to have caught one of the good shows on stage. See the pictures below for more on that day! It was really impressive.

Welcome to the Busan Chinese Culture Festival

This was pretty crazy...

Compare this picture to the one above...notice how the table has turned....she spun it on her foot. WHAT!?!