Maybe I should explain...

Last week, friend Michele and I went to eMart (a walmart-ish store here) to browse around and pick up a few things.  I found this sweet scooter helmet and put it on.  Michele added the goggles, and here's the result.

The side view.

I guess thats not much of an explanation.  I got nothing.

So High-Tech.

Our apartment here is what I call "high-tech Korean".  For example, our doorbell has a video monitor, our front door lock is an electronic touch keypad, and the hot water heater isn't a tank - water is heated as it runs through the pipes of the water heater (you never run out of hot water!) so you have to turn it on before taking a shower or doing dishes.  One of my favorite high tech parts of this apartment is the floor heating.  To heat the house, water pipes run under the floors and heat the room from the floor up.  Very nice when sitting on the floor (which I do a lot when studying).  We never really knew how the pipes worked, until the other day when Mr.Ben cleaned the floors while the heat was on.  

Happy Birthdays!

Our 27th birthday weekend kicked off Saturday evening when we got the chance to attend our neighbor's daughter's 1st birthday party.

Sunday was my birthday, but of course we couldn't wait to open our gifts so we opened them Saturday night. Among a(nother) pocket knife for Mr.Ben, and a much need waffle iron...

...Ben surprised me with this:

Our old camera went kapoot a few months ago and the iPhone just wasn't cutting it anymore.  I've been drooling over this camera forever.  I'm no photographer, but I've wanted something a little better than a point-and-shoot, while still very user friendly.  Bingo!

Isn't my hubby sweet?

My birthday was on Sunday, so here I am before leaving for church.

Ben had to work Sunday night, so I got to surprise him with a little birthday decor for his big day.

 Between a lot of working and midterms, we didn't quite have the standard favorite-day-of-the-year festivities.  And Ben came down with the most wretched flu on his birthday morning, leaving him like this most of the day.

Poor Mr.Ben.  Glad he's feeling better now, three days and a trip to the ER later.

Busy.

Oh boy, have we been busy these last few weeks!  Lets see if I can even remember...

Mr.Ben started work on his masters degree about a month ago.  Between his crazy work schedule and trying to keep up with his classwork, he definitely qualifies as a busy guy.

I also started back to school this semester, working hard to finish my bachelors.  I'm taking 22 credits this semester.  I hope to finish before we leave Korea next year, only 10 years after I started my bachelors.  Stay in school, kids.

Around the same time we started school, I started teaching piano lessons here.  I am so fortunate to have 6 beautiful, talented girls (ages 8-16) starting lessons last month.  I love seeing their progress!

There hasn't been much time for exploring, unfortunately.  But we did take a quick drive south last weekend to pick up some classwork for my math class.  This is the view through Pyeongtaek, taken from the car.

The funny thing about being busy - we may be getting a lot done, but we're enjoying our quiet moments together even more.

ps. I've been playing with a new photo editing iPhone app - Instagram.  For a super quick enhancement, I kinda like it!

english.

I feel like I should explain.  It's cold here.  Really cold.  This morning it was 3 Fahrenheit.  THREE.  To heat the house, there are pipes that run hot water under the floors.  So the building management is asking that we keep the floor heating on and let the faucets drip so the pipes don't freeze.  Oh, and the -12 is Celsius.  They put this sign up over a week ago and I guess it's still necessary.  Brrr...

winter fail.

Clearing Snow Off The Roof Fail - Watch more Funny Videos

Happy winter!

thankful thursday.

1. Watching the Insight Bowl live yesterday.  Even better, watching Iowa beat Missouri!  Such a good game.  Go Hawkeyes!

2. Amazon.com.  I just bought so many piano books (half for students, half for me - hee hee)!  I love that I can find obscure books for sometimes pretty cheap and that they ship things here.  And, along with this, I'm so grateful to have a piano here.

3. Starting school again.  I probably won't be grateful for school once it has started, but I'm glad to have the opportunity to finish my degree while we're here.  It's way past time to get it done.

More Pictures from Korea House.

I mentioned here that while at the Korea House a couple weeks ago, I got the chance to join the traditional dancers on stage.  One of the guys in our group took some contraband photos and shared them with us.

We watched about an hour of performances before this, so when they pulled me from the audience, I didn't hesitate at all!  It was so much fun!