F is for Five Things I Like About South Korea

1. No Fear

There is little to be afraid of here. Children play in the streets at midnight on a Friday night. Children buy ice cream from random men on the sidewalk. Delivery restaurants bring food in real dishes and people leave them outside their doors for the restaurant to collect. No one thinks of stealing them.

2. Packaged Foods
 Things that come in bags like big bags of chips or cereal come with stickers on them. You use the sticker to seal the bag. Brillant.

3. Words of Wisdom
My friend A informed me of two korean sayings the other day. One is "You have thin ears". It means that you listen too much to what other people think. The other is, "You are going to fly away". It implies that you listen so much to what other people think that your ears are flapping back and forth and you will take off. We could all listen a little less to what others think of us and the things we do.

4. Numbered Buildings
If my computer cord was working I could show you a picture of this. Instead of having an address like 101 Blog Lane, buildings are assigned numbers. I think we live in 13. This eliminates confusion. For example, in the states, my sister could live on 101 Main St, and I could live on 101 Mane St. This way, each building has a unique number and your pizza gets delivered to the right address.

5. Postage
I mailed two postcards internationally. It costs me ten cent total. Total. When I was in Scotland mailing one letter  to the states cost me close to 2.5 dollars.

An {etsy} Deal Just For You!

The Etsy seller who offers the following two products (they were featured here) has offered my readers a 10% discount on the two items. Follow the links below to get to the product. Please leave a message for the seller letting her know you found the dicount here. She recommends putting RLB88 in the message to the seller box.

Lovely and Feminine

Warm and Colorful

Don't forget about Mingle Monday!

Head over to Life of Meg and help finish the story about a cupcake crisis. Don't forget to comment on the other participants blogs. Tomorrow, she'll post a list of participating blogs for you to visit.


http://megnificentlife.blogspot.com/2010/06/mingle-monday_20.html

A little something for your Monday: Beautiful Blogger Award

A long long time ago I was given the beautiful blogger award by More Than a Mommy. Here is the award:

Recieving the award comes with two stipulations. I must pass the award on to seven people and give seven facts about myself.

Here are the winners:

Food Floozie: This is a wonderful blog. She writes beautifully about food and life in general. I love the recipes she posts. She also has a gorgeous layout and a very creative title.

Justin and Marice: A beautiful blog where they share their life as newlyweds. Lovely, inspiring, and well written.

Life of Meg: Meg's blog is a perfect read for a daily dose of fun and sass. She's started Mingle Monday which is lots of fun and a great way to find new blogs to read.

Some Days You Gotta Dance: I'm a fairly new follower but I like what I see. Oh, and shes a baker like me!

Yada Yada Yada: A dear friend and fellow blogger. She doesn't post often but when she does she's full of wisdom and great stories. 

my I-Do It Yourself Wedding: One of the many wedding planning blogs I follow.

Life Blessons:  Starting with the title, everything about her blog is wondferful. She writes about everything from God and marriage to maing her own shampoo.

Now for the seven facts about me:

1. I drink mostly water.

2. I don't like tuna (mr. groom says this is not normal. Am I alone?)

3. I don't have a favorite flower- I like anything  that is uniquely colored or shaped.

4. I desperately want to be able to afford all of my Etsy favorites.

5. I really really want my own place so I can cook dinner, make menus and decorate.

6. I really want to try the chocolate bacon bar and bacon cupcakes. (have you?)

7. I live in my flip flops.

  

A Few of My Favorite {etsy} Things

My current "big" dream is to be able to buy all of my Etsy favorites. Since I can't, I'm sharing my favorites with you. Consider it a new take on ATMS. Click on the descriptions to be taken to the etsy shop with the product:

Lovely and Feminine

Warm and Colorful

Yummy

Bright and Useful and Simply Delightful

Just a quick recap

I've been going to school with Mr. Groom. The children are just adorable! Many of them are very eager to look and talk to me. I've met many little girls who have learned to say my name and always ask "Girlfriend?". One even dug out her workbook and showed me a picture of a bride and then pointed to me and said "Teacher bride". So cute I may have to steal one...

I've started giving myself little photography projects. Yesterdays was to walk around downtown and take pictures of all of the mistranslated signs. Todays was suppoused to be photograph all of the statues downtown. But it rained so it turned into play papparazi and photograph Mr. Groom. He doesn't like me taking pictures of him- says he looks like a goober. But I managed to get some sexy shirtless photos of him this morning, and a few of him sitting at his desk at work.

Oh! I want you to guess what I had for dinner last night.



Fried chicken, watermelon and peanuts.

I must have stepped into a cultural time warp bubble when we went out for dinner. The place also served eel, cuttle fish and a variety of other nonappetizing culinary delights.

Five Question Friday.

Happy Friday everybody!

1. What is your favorite thing about summertime?


The excuse to have lots of icecream. And trips to the beach



2. What is your ideal retirement location (if money didn't matter)?
I would have many homes across the USA (east coast mountains and beach) and Europe (Scotland, Italy) as well as Australia. I


3. Do you live in the same town you grew up in?
I'm a college student so sort of. Currently I'm in Changwon, South Korea, in August I'll be in the Upstate of SC and in December I might be in PA

4. What nervous habit did you have as a child that you kicked to the curb before becoming an adult?
chewing on my hair....thank goodness...its totally gross!

5. What is the most embarrassing thing that happened to you while on the job?

Hmmmm. This is a toughie. Got it. Dropping a salad in a mans lap and then trying to clean it up. Yeah, I never wanna wait tables again.

Whoops!

I know its not Thursday anymore but I've been wanting to jump on this bandwagon now for awhile, so I figured better late than never.  So here goes my first Thursday Five.

I'm suppoused to post things that make me:

Happy

Grateful

Jubilant

Ecstatic

Thankful

1. I bought my wedding garter this week! Its from this Etsy shop and I love it. Here's a picture:

2. I am very thankful that I get to spend the summer with Mr. Groom. We'd been apart for around 10 months.

3. The past two days I have been to work with Mr. Groom and played with the kids before class. Mr. Groom says they usually shy away from touching the western teachers, but they have been holding my hand and giving me high-fives. They are absolutely adorable. I took pictures but of course I don't have my cord.

4. Our weekend plans make me very excited! We're going to dinner with a mixed group of Koreans, Americans and possibly Canadians and then hopefully to the lake for a light show and then to the singing room for karoke.

5. This week I got two emails from my bestest friend!

What things made your week?

Talk it Up Tuesday Recap

Well, it wasn't a big success, but I'll try again in a few weeks and if it doesn't stick then I'll go back to regular post Tuesdays. But I did have one follower participate.

Thanks yentamary of Food Floozie. I'm fairly new to her blog but what I've read so far I love. She posts about food, cooking, religion and life in general and has a beautiful blog design. Go check her out. I promise you won't regret it.

Book: What I Did for Love by Susan Elizabeth Philips

The title of this book would be more accurate if it were "What I Did For Fame".

Through a series of bad judgements Georgie York ends up married to her childhood costar. Both are at a place in their lives where they just can't handle any more bad publicity and agree to stay married for the good publicity. Georgie wants to recover publically from a failed marriage, and her new husband from a bad boy reputation. As they struggle to adjust their lives to one another, and their personal assitants they find that they might just be falling in love.

I read this book on the airplane. Its definitely an easy, noncomittal read. If you're looking for something a little serious, or something that makes  you want to read on, find another book. If you want something to help you sleep on airplane, check this one out. That being said, not bad for a beach or airplane read.

Help Me Out With Number 40?

Number 40 on my 101/1001 list is to make a list of 25 books I want to read. I am being very picky about the books I put on the list. I am trying to choose books that I have wanted to read for a while but haven't gotten around to it.

I don't want to finalize the list until I am back in the USA because I keep a running notebook of recommended reading that I want to pick a few books from. I think I want to try and stick mostly to fiction books

But all of my list probably won't come from that notebook. Thats where you come in. What are your favorite books of all time? Have you finished a really great book recently?

Here is the list I've got so far:

1. Problems Men Started- Nikki Hardin
2. Animal Farm- George Orwell
3. The Tipping Point- Malcolm Gladwell
4. Housekeeping-Marilynne Robinson
5. Suck in your stomach and put some color on-Shellie Tomilson
6. As If I Am Not There- Slavenka Drakulic
7. The Year of the Flood- Margaret Atwood
8. The Lost Hours- Karen White

Thanks for your suggestions. I'll let you know if any of them make the list!

E is for Elastic Waist Pants and Other Trends That I Followed

For the longest time I refused to wear jeans. The only pants my mother could get me into were elastic waisted black Hang Ten brand pants. They had little handprints on them at the top. They looked something like this:

I also went through a leopard print phase. I had a leopaard print skirt, leopard print sandals, purse and lunchbox. I had 2 different black shirts with leopard print  trim and a black beanie with leopard trip. The last 6 pack of Walmart undearwear I bought was leopard print. The rug in my room had a leopard on it. My bedspread is red with leopards on it. Maybe I should have said never got out of a leopard phase. Maybe I was raised in the jungle by a pack of English speaking leopards.

In high school I went through a second no jeans phase. Except this time I wore short skirts and dresses instead of cloth pants. I wore skirts and heels every flippin' day to school. Every day I got asked to perform the fingertip test. Everyday I performed the test and smirked because I knew I was getting away by mere centimeters.

I also went through a no tennis shoes phase. I hated them- the way the looked, the way the fit, the way my laces wouldn't stay tied unless I triple knotted them and then they just looked dumb. I always thought they made my size 6.5 feet look two big. A semester in Scotland has gotten me used to wearing them again but they're still not my favorite. My current mission is to find an everyday pair of shoes that aren't tennis shoes and aren't flip flops.

What were your funny fashion trends? Did you wear parachute pants? Go through a tiedye phase? How about denim outfits. C'mon fess up!

Don't forget to check out this weeks giveaways!


(Apologies are needed to the person who left a comment this morning. I've been struggling with IntenseDebate and comluv recently and I think your comment got deleted. I want to say it was Meg's Blog)

Go Win Wednesday

There is a bit more for you to win this week. Let me know if you win!

ALL

Ends June 21st. Win customized jewelry from Graycat

Ends July 2nd. Win 3 bars of goats milk soap. She's got lots of great scents to choose from.

LIMITED

Ends  June 17th. Win a personalized BBQ set.
Ends June 18th. Win free business cards.
Ends June 29th. Win a bath product gift basket

Talk it Up Tuesdays: Making a 101/1001 list

I want to try something out. I want to try to start Talk it Up Tuesdays. For talk it up Tuesdays I will eitther post a topic  to blog about, ask some questions or offer up a creative challenge. Depending on the Tuesday, your responses will either be in comments or through a mclinky. I'm thinking about doing this everyother week. Sound good?

This week I want to piggyback off of yesterdays post about lists. Have you made a bucket list or a 101 things to do in 1001 days list? I finished mine this morning and will post it here. If  you've made a list share it in the McLinky. If you haven't leave a comment listing your top goals. Also, I'd love any suggestions or tips on how to complete the goals on mine.

As a bonus for leaving a comment or sharing your list I will post a list of bloggers that participated along with a little blurb about your blog. Now- go make that list!

1.Get Married
2. Honeymoon
3. Go to New Orleans
4.Go to Vegas with Mr. Groom
5. See the Grand Canyon
6. Graduate from College
7. Have homemade food 7 nights in a row.
8. Host a dinner party
9. Have a cheese party
10. Clean out my room at my parents house.
11. Take a cake decorating class
12.Go camping
13. Visit the Biltmore
14. Tour a winery
15. Buy a postcard album/box
16.Visit Yellowstone
17. Get a job
18. Frame my wedding pictures
19. Send someone a card I made
20. Take a couples trip
21. Go on a girls getaway
22. Make a scrapbook
23. Help Morningside raise money for their renovation project
24. Participate in Operation Christmas Child
25. Create a writing portfolio
26. Create a professional website and/or business cards
27. Take Mr. Groom to Morningside
28. Learn to make bread
29. Go to Morningsides Card Making Minstry at least once
30. Change my name
31. Volunteer at a soup kitchen
32. Send thank you notes for all of our wedding gifts
33. Have a real Christmas tree
34. Buy Mr. Groom a personal Christmas Ornament
35. Have Boudoir photos made
36. Go back to the drive in movies
37. Give out Halloween candy
38. Buy wedding shoes
39. See Prince of Persia
40. Make a 25 books to read list
41. Read all 25 books
42. Make a perpetual calendar with important dates on both sides
43. Post an engagement notice in the paper
44. Try 15 new non-dessert recipeS
45. Try 15 new dessert recipes.
46. Finish Westbound Hope
47. Create a Places to Submit Notebook
48. Load all pictures on my camera onto cds
49. Get comfortable dancing
50. Edit and perfect my vows
51. Get my makeup done for a nautual look
52. Learn to do my makeup the same way
53. Take Mr. Groom to Cherokee
54. Visit Texas
55. Voluteer with Girl Scouts
56. Make homemade icecream
57. Publish a piece of writing
58. Buy personalized stationary
59. Sell my prom dresss
60. Go to a fair
61. Go back to Bamajam/something similar
62. Send Christmas Carrds
63. Pay off 50% of my student loans
64. Send a care package
65. Stay at a bed and breakfast
66. Do a 365 photo challenge
67. Send regular snail mail to my friends once I graduate
68. Write daily
69. Parasail
70. Make postcards out of pictures I've taken
71. Create a weekly menu
72. Make truffles again
73. Get an after college job
74. Make Wedding Earrings
75. Host a blog giveaway
76. Make a home with Mr. Groom
77. Take pictures in a photo booth
78. Attend Converse College's Class of 2011 graduation ceremony
79. Do something to benefit a soldier
80. Be a Girl Scout leader
81. Lay the plans for a reoccuring Girls Weekend Vacation
82. Get another massage
83. Put all of my books on shelves
84. Get an autographed book from Terry Goodkind
85. Look into being a foster parent
86. Make Smores with Homemade Marshmallows and Graham crackers
87. Make Homemade hot chocolate
88. Make and give cake in a jar
89. Make a cocktail at home, not from a mix
90. Try a chocolate bacon bar
91. Wrap a gift in a bobo wrap scarf
92. Meet Mr. Groom's mother
93. Buy a scrapbook suppy organizer
94. Go to a card making class or tutorial
95. Eat at PF Changs
96. Eat at Scrapbook Creations again
97. Take "Lyric" to 5 Guys
98. Try the once a month cooking thing
99. Go on just for fun walks
100. Buy personalized address labels.
101. Visit Savannah and eat at Paula Deen's restaurant

More Food (Mis)Adventures

Ya'll will probably be hearing a lot about my food misadventures-at least until the end of August when I will return to the comfort of southern food and then begin experimenting with recipes I've been collecting this summer.

Saturday night a group of us went to dinner. We had some type of pork (sim something), that is very similar to bacon and almost as deliscious. At this dinner, I was taught a new way to hold and use chopsticks and suprinsingly, it worked- unllike the 82 other methods I'd been shown. Try, try, try again. We had the pork and with it they served many side dishes. Mr. Groom  coerced me into trying the octopus side dish. The taste wasn't bad but it was too chewy for my liking. After dinner we were served some type of drink that ended in the "qua" sound and was quite yummy. It was sort of like drinking cold apple cider, with honey but a bit thicker.

After dinner we headed home to  meet two more friends to watch the World Cup. Well, they had not had dinner yet and brought Japanese take out with them. And offered to share. Lucky us. Mr. Groom explained to me before, that refusing food was equal to a social slap in the face. So I took a bite. And then our guests announced what we were eating. Cuttle fish. Look it up. Its a squidy type fish. It had been made into meatball shaped  pieces along with very slimy bread. The texture was too much to handle. It sloshed around in my mouth as I tried to swallow it. Half of it down and I felt my gag reflex kicking in. Have mercy, I can't reject their dinner like this. At this time, a soccer player  tripped and our guests raised thier hands to their mouths in laughter. I raised mine, in kind. But I was keeping my dinner from spewing across the apartment. Luckily, I was able to swallow it and then hopped up for some water. I made a comment about being so full from dinner and THANK THE HEAVENS our male guest asked me if, since I was full, his girlfriend could finish mine. I could have kissed him.

Sunday, we went to Pizza Etang for our usual Sunday afternoon pizzas. I've become fond of their pineapple pizza. Sunday night, I braved the ferocious fire spitting gas oven and made scrambled eggs with peppers and cheese. I've cooked with gas before, but this stovetop seemed to either be full flame or no heat. I managed to cook Mr. Grooms eggs in a scalding 5 seconds, did mine in 6 and ended up with burnt bits.

Tonight- I mastered the flame. I was able to coerce the stove into giving me a smaller flame. I heated hot dog weenies and peppers and topped  them off with cheese and mustard. Mmmm.

And I'll likely be back at the grocery store tomorrow. Wish me luck

Oh and I promise that E is for.... will be coming up soon

Two ATM Favorite Quotes and One More ATM Favorite Food

These quotes come from the book Five, that I bought at a Starbucks. Its one of those quotes, inspitational books that trys to help you map out your next 5 years- hence the title.

Quote #1: "The human man is the fastest-working, coolest-running, most compact and efficent computer ever produced in large quantities by unskilled labor" - Bob Moawad

Quote #2: "I get up every morning determined both to change the world and have one hell of a good time. Sometimes this makes planing the day difficult." E. B White

Food:

I am loving Haagen- Dazs Vanilla and Almond ice cream treats. Creamy vanilla ice cream coated in hardened chocolate and almond bits. Mmmm. I think I'm developing a thing for almonds lately.

101 in 1001

I've heard many people making a bucket list and I've seen several bloggers (especially this one) make a 101 things to do in 1001 days. I'm making a list, but I need some inspiration. I've got big things like visit Vegas, and small things like make a scrapbook. But I'm stuck on number 75. I need 25 more goals. I want to focus on more smaller or inbetween things because I know I'm getting married in 100 and so something days and after that our finaces will be tight. BUT I don't want to stop myself from dreaming big, so I do want bigger things on the list.

Have you made a list? Whats on it? What things do you want to do in the next 1001 days? If you've blogged about it, please leave a comment sharing your list. If you haven't- what are your top ten things?

4 ATM Favorites

Drink:
The Sand House (sandwich shop) makes the best lemonade I've ever had. I had a glass today. It is more sour than sweet, which is just the way I like it.

Cereal: 
Kelloggs Almond Flakes. Well, I know they're Kelloggs and I know they've got almonds in them but I can't read the korean to tell you for sure. These  things are amazing. Perfect amount of sweetness for a cereal and the almond bits leave the milk tasting almondy. Especially good with cut up bananas.

Website:
I haven't gotten to try any of the recipes on here yet but I can't wait to. How to Eat a Cupcake has some great recipes (cupcakes and other goodies) as well as a neat search tool that lets you search by baked good type or by flavor.

Meal:
I have no clue where I went for dinner last night but what I had was so amazing I wish I would have taken a picture. We ordered the potatoe sampler and the sausage sampler. We were served three amazing types of potatoes (oven roasted, loaded potato skins and something reminiscent of Bojangles potatoes) and  a big platter of 4 or 5 scrumdiddlyumptious types of sausages. I ate and ate and ate. Mmmmm.

I just realized that my 4 new favorites all deal with food and can't be added to the carousal. Must mean its time for dinner. Tootles.

PS: E is for week is quickly approaching and I'm running low on ideas. Suggestions appreciated.

Five Question Friday

Yay its Friday! Which means its time for Five Question Friday with Little Life. Maybe this week I won't forget to link up.


1. What do you think makes a good friend, or friendship?

Someone  you can trust, confide in, and sit around doing nothing with.

2. What is the last thing you bought & later regretted?
A $45 spa package. Luckily, I was able to resell it for the same price
3. Have you ever had a prank played on you?
yes, several. but at the moment I can't recall a specefic one

4. What is your favorite theme park?

Dollywood. I love the indoor rollercoaster .I also haven't been in ages

5. Have you ever seen someone else give birth?
 
No, and I don't plan on it.
 
What are your answers?

Changwon: Some Pictures

this is in the park I frequent

this is from the same park

I tried and tried to roatate this picture but no matter what I do it won't save rotated. This building is on the way to Mr. Groom's work

this is our apartment building

we push the red button at the top to turn the hot water on so we can shower or burn our feet on the floor, you know whichever happens to float our boat.

neighboors (across the street)

on the way to the library. I like to go there and write. You can see the mountains all around the city but its hard to get a clear shot

lack of space leads to putting things like driving ranges on top of really tall buildings

this picture was taken down by the grocery store. look closely at it. See the vertical yellow sign in the middle? Look to the left of it. See what looks like a barber shop pole? There are TONS of these poles all over the city. They don't designate barber shops. Oh no. They designate ummm....errr....shall we say "happy endings"