My 27th Birthday

November 13, 2012

My 27th birthday was our first full day in Korea. I woke up super early and had toast and apples (Nick Note: They were the best apples I have ever eaten) for breakfast. We then went for out first session of taekwondo at 8:50 am. The whole group goes every morning. Over half our group is a black belt and our goal is to get to that level. They said it will take about 1 year.

After our lesson Richard, our Superintendent, stopped to pick up a cake for me at a really cute bakery. We went home and got ready for our first day of training. When we got to the building my desk area was decorated with balloons and streamers. Soon after everyone arrived they presented my cake and sang to me. It was pretty awesome! The cake was really good.

When Koreans sing Happy Birthday they clap along.

Blowing out the candles. If you look close you can see all the fruit on the cake. They even included a tomato and a very small apple.

This is Suzi, Richards wife, she is the director of the school. She passed out the cake. 

This is the very small apple. It had a very good sweet taste.

Nick and I sit next to each other (this could be very dangerous) but our schedules will be different so I will be at the desk when he is teaching and he will be there when I'm teaching. 

They put this cute hat on me and I think I like it.

The day went by so fast. We went out to dinner as a group. I was a little surprised.. I watched what everyone else was doing and copied them. We sat on the floor and then cooked our food in a large bowl over a burner. They had kimchi,  tiny fish, and other things on the table to eat while the food was cooking. Nick loved the food even though it had things in it he would normally not eat. I tried a little bit of everything and was shocked that I actually liked it. 

After dinner we had to go back to school and teach a night class and then we had planning till 9 and then we went home. Nick and I couldn't eat past 8 pm because we had our drug test Wednesday morning.

Richard drove us to the hospital where they drew blood and other test (I didn't do to well on the eye exam)

We then visited the Dentist. It literally took them 30 sec to look in my mouth and say "good" it took about 3-5 mins. for Nick. The Dr. then told Richard that Nick had 4 cavities. This is funny because Nick just got 5 cavities filled before we left for Korea. I laughed really hard.

On our way out of the Dentist office I smelled something yummy and asked Richard if we could stop in. It was a BAKERY!!!!! yummy food every where and Nick and I were starving. I got a fresh cooked donut and Nick picked up some french bread. Both super amazing. We had chocolate milk to drink.

We then drove back and had a few hours till we had work. We are looking forward to the weekend where we can clean our apartments and get settled a little more. 

Thank you so much for the Birthday wishes and cards. We love all of you so much!

Our mailing address is:

Lauren and Nick Stevens
Changnyeong English Village 
7-1, Gyesung-ri, Gyesung-myeon, Chang-nyeong Gun, 
Gyeongsangnamdo, 635-922. South Korea.

it is easier to send usps (we were told ) because the others will go through the boxes and then tax us on whats in it.

I will write later and let you know how things are going.

L and N