Unveiling Chicken Little

One of my favorite things about working at a Korean school is their food. Korean food is SO good. Koreans have the most entertaining snack foods. One of my personal favorites are drumstick crackers. I have documented the unveiling of these little guys for your enjoyment.

That is my coveted bag from my Thailand. Best purchase of the year (so far).

The box. Please enlarge for maximum enjoyment.

Can you tell that I ACTUALLY like these things?

Wrapped in pure gold for freshness.

Have you ever witnessed a drumstick cracker?

We will most likely be eating these for Thanksgiving.

Nagpapasalamat

Nagpapasalamat means grateful in Tagalog, according to an online translator. But I think I am going to believe them because Salamat means thank you and that is in the word above.

Today I am thinking about how grateful I am for our families. We have the best families. I am so happy we get to share eternity with both of them.

Smith Family Christmas 2008

Folkman Family Leavenworth 2008. Missing Pete, Becca, Zoey, Tom and Jamie.

I am also grateful for amazing friends. I have had genuine friends in most places I have lived. In college I was able to find some of the best friends I will ever meet in my life. Also, living in Woodinville we had some AMAZING friends who we both really miss. I got used to not seeing high school friends or college friends. I am not used to NOT seeing our friends and family from WA every week if not every day. So, today I am grateful for friendship.

Woodinville Friends. I think we are still missing a few gals.

This photo was from a really awesome going away party Ashley put together for us. She is really good at throwing parties, making cute babies, organizing, cooking delish food and being a super kick butt friend.

In the rush of moving I did not post any photos from our party but I want to this second since I am feeling sentimental.

Delicious Food By Ash

More food.

The wonderful gals got me the bike basket I had wanted for months from SAM.

OBSESSED

I don’t have any children but when I do I can guarantee you I will be just as obsessed. I LOVE my nieces and nephews SO much. I can go a year with out seeing the adults but seriously, how am I gonna do it with the little ones? I love you Macy Lulu. I love you Merrick. I love you Eli. I love you Emma. I love you Zoey. I love Baby Boy Reckling too, even if you are only a fetus nephew.

 

Zoey The Lady Bug and Emma The Dragon

Macy Lulu The Incredible and Eli Frankenstein

Merrick the Monkey

The Labrynth Family

 

 

Nobody But You

Is this song popular in the US? It is crazy popular in the Philippines and my Korean students are OBSESSED. Every single boy or girl under the age of 10 could sing this song for you. I just don’t know if it is popular in the US and I really want to know. I am guilty of loving this song.

Here is the video link. It actually starts about 1 minute in.

Werewolf Bar Mitzvah

Tops the tops. Hands down best Halloween tunes ever.

Please follow this link. It is well worth your time.

Werewolf Bar Mitzvah

La Musica

Lately I have been loving Lykke Li. She is soothing and magical. It is a calm up beat that I swear releases happy endorphins.

Lightning Dust – The first track I listened to I was not super turned on but then it just kept getting better. Give em a chance.

La Roux – As soon as I hit play my body gets runners high. La Roux is my motivator and work out partner.

Yo-yo’s

What we have been up to recently:

• Jake working from 4 am to 1 pm. We have to go to bed earlier but we get to spend way mo’ time together.
• I tutor English Mon-Thur 7-11 am at a Korean School just down the road.
• I also tutor 8 kiddos from US embassy families in various subjects through the week.
• Helping with some relief efforts here for the flood victims. This is our first week off in the last couple of weeks.
• Getting hosed over by taxi drivers left and right. They totally try to take advantage of us because we are white. Jake has been feuding with multiple the last couple weeks.
• Hunting for candy corn and no such luck. I don’t even like candy corn but since I can’t have it I want it!
• Jake is in the beginnings of a challenge to cook dinner 7 nights in a row. Every night he does not cook dinner he has to restart at 1. I believe we are on attempt #2 or 3.
• Get clothes made for our bodies. We found a tailor that can sew most anything for us for $20-$25 USD. I got a dress made for my birthday and Jake is getting a few work shirts made. I spent a few hours on anthro website picking our some numbers I want done.
• I turned 25. Zoinks.

That is pretty much all we have been up to. I write weekly emails home so this poor little bloggity blog gets neglected because I don’t want to have to retype everything. Hopefully I will get better even if it is about stupid stuff like t.v.

Boob Tube

We have been making up for lost time. We have not enjoyed the luxury of cable t.v. since we have been married so that has become our new favorite past time. The seasons are dirt cheap over here too. Here is a list of our accomplishments.

1.How I Met Your Mother

2. Mad Men – got bored after episode one and stopped watching.

3. Heroes – going to stop watching pretty soon.

4. The Office – a little bored this season.

5. Parks and Recreation – certainly stepped it up this season. We have been thoroughly enjoying it.

6. 30 Rock – Duh

7. Glee – as noted below

8. Community – am-a-zing.

9. Burn Notice – The modern day McGyver

10. Kings – Dramatic and thought provoking. A definite serious note to it which is a nice change for our choice in sitcoms.

11. Chuck – Who doesn’t love Chuck? I just want him and Sarah to be together so bad.

We have also dabbled with our fair share of movies since they are only $4 buck-a-roos.  I can’t remember all of them. We go see a movie once a week but they are always released 2 months later.

Glee

I love American T.V. I especially love Glee. SOOOOO GOOOOOD!

GLEE from Anton Atanasov on Vimeo.

I can’t upload the video unless I upgrade and pay $60, not going to happen. Just click the link and enjoy.

Thailand

We just got back from an awesome week in Thailand. We stayed in Bangkok and Chiang Mai. We are planning on taking another trip next year to Phuket. It was an amazing trip. Everything went smoothly for the most part and we did some awesome tours. We also played with full grown tigers, rode elephants through the jungle, went river rafting on bamboo rafts, went to Dream World (Thailand’s Disneyland), saw an amazing show, Siam Niramit, and ate delicious food. I have posted a link to our picasa web albums because I have too many photos to upload. Slowly I will try and post some photos with explanations. For now go here and check out our 200 photos.

Here is an adorable Hill Tribe baby sucking on an opium pipe.

Islands – Vapours

Jake here. It seems both AJ and I have been sucking lately at blogging so I figure the least I can do is hook y’all up with some music. I’ve really been digging the new Islands album.

People of Wal-Mart

This is one of the greatest things I’ve seen. Use caution. http://peopleofwalmart.com

Lame-O

Sorry. I am recommitting myself to this blog. Promise.

Mellow Yellow

I am here (AJ) and I am ready to start blogging again. I have so much to blog about that it is overwhelming and I almost don’t want to but I will. Here is a post to my facebook album that has like a gazillion photos {here}. I think most of you who read this blog get my weekly emails so I am not going to go into great detail on here. What, you don’t get my emails and you want to? Leave a comment with your email addy on here.

The Philippines kicks serious butt. I love it here. I can not think of a better place to live internationally. It has been a smooth transition because it is very westernized. Which sounds a little pathetic that I am living in this awesome place and am happy that it is similar to the country we are from. While living abroad is full of mystery and intrigue it is really nice to have familiarity as a friend stopping by to say hello from time to time.

I can’t say it enough how blessed I am to be married to such an amazing man who gave me this ridiculously cool life. Jake is the best. I love him so much my little heart might explode like a volcano.

Well as you can see from some of the photos below we are not suffering by any means. Our apartment is small but swanky. The building we live in is newer than 1 year old and has elevator men. They make sure they push button 16 so I don’t have to. My favorite elevator man is Henry. He is great. He tries to help Jake and I learn some common Tagalog phrases but it is not going super great. They have an array of different treats here and Jake and I love to buy them. We don’t want to eat them all on our own so we take them with us on elevator rides to give to Henry. I think he likes them but I am not sure.

Highlights of the Philippines:

-Cheap produce – extra crunchy cucumbers, extra meaty mangos, juicy cheap pineapple, crispy pears, yellow watermelon

-Cheap shopping – SO much shopping it could drive any shopaholic insane.

-Cheap movies – so far we have seen 5 movies

-Happy people- very very happy people who want to serve

-McDonald’s delivery – ha

-Cheap easy to use taxis

-Warm weather

-Nice beaches up north and south

-Stronger members of the church

-Humble culture

Lowlights-

-Lots of seafood

-Interesting sweet tangy smells

-Poverty

Well that is all for today.

Here is a photo of the yellow watermelon I ate today.

We’re Finally Here…

Jake here. Hello to everyone. AJ is currently sitting across from me and has been nice enough to let me post our first entry from Manila. So while she browses the interwebs on my work computer I am going to post a few pictures of our first few days in the Philippines. Just like any other move we’ve been busy running around town figuring out where everything is so we can get situated in our new apartment. We still don’t have internet hooked up. It was supposed to happen today but it is looking like a no as the afternoon passes so we are down in the lobby of our building where there is free wifi. So far AJ loves the Philippines and what has become of her life. She has been so excited about all of the shopping, food, etc. We live in one of the nicest areas of Manila. It is a little smoggy and you can definitely see it in some of the photos but it is warm. I haven’t heard AJ complain about being cold since we got here. One of the down sides is that Manila is apparently one of the most expensive cities in the world in terms of electricity. We’ve heard stories about people getting nailed with a $1500 monthly bill. But that was in a big house and we are in a tiny apartment. Still, we are trying to be very careful (even though my company is footing the cost). Also, I lost my phone the 3rd day we were here. I was thinking it fell out of my pocket in a taxi, but several people on Facebook have suggested I was pick-pocketed. I’ll let AJ fill you guys in on the rest when she gets around to it. Here are some pictures we took from around our building. Enjoy.