Kim Jones Meets Kimchi: A Thanksgiving and a Halloween

I love my Champagne Thursday friends- they do the most amazing things. I am going to miss them.

One of my champagne girl friends, Kristin, is leaving Korea for a spell to visit family and whatnot back home and before she left she wanted a nice Thanksgiving meal with her husband and friends here. They got an actual turkey from Costco and there was a LOT of food, booze and friends. The spread was absolutely amazing! Turkey, two kinds of stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, deviled eggs, stuffed peppers, bacon wrapped mushrooms... they even had non-Thanksgiving foods like lasagna, ham, Vietnamese soup, and some others I don't remember. I was mostly about the turkey and stuffing. For dessert? Pumpkin pie, pecan pie, tiramisu, persimmon ice-cream pie, and more. My friend Sonya made hot apple cider with whiskey and on a cool night it was really delicious and made you warm inside and out. The party lasted all day and well into the night and there was a lot of laughing and singing (Russell brought his guitar). It was one of my best days in Korea.

Only part of the feast is pictured.

Hanging around before supper time.

At school we had a Halloween party for the kindergartners. I bought a cheap fireman's costume meant for little boys to wear. One of the Korean teachers asked if any of us had ever carved a pumpkin and I say, "yes, of course" while Jennifer said, "nope, never." This girl is a 28 year old American and has NEVER carved a pumpkin?! You know what, don't get me started on Jennifer. Her naiveté and inexperience just of life in general is insane. She's super Christian and all she's ever done is gone to church. ANYWAY, I carved a pumpkin in front of all the kindergartners because I've had a fun childhood and know how to do such things. Then we watched some of "The Nightmare Before Christmas," because it's awesome and halloweeny.

Me, a couple power rangers, and Batman. Also my youngest class.

My older K class.

The entrance to my school pimped out for Halloween!

One of my classrooms I decorated. Decent view, too.

For that Saturday halloween celebration I went over to Sonja's to join the Champagne Thursday girls. Sasha is amazing at hair and make-up and her and a couple of the other girls had the idea that we should all be Mexican Day of the Dead people sporting sugar skulls. We found some pics online and basically I said, "oh, I gotta have the one with the teeth- tres scary!" We drank, we laughed and we looked amazing. Courtney brought me a dress to wear (she specifically told me before, "omg Kim I have the perfect dress for you to wear!" I thought it was just meh, but I liked that it was plain so my make-up would not be upstaged. Sonja also happened to have a tiny top hat in her apartment and when I saw I knew I had the perfect accessory. Sasha did my hair and make-up and then I believe I had my best Halloween look ever! On the way to the party we had a LOT of Koreans staring excitedly and asking to take pictures of us. Even when I was at the party I had tons of people taking pictures and I do believe we made quite the sensation!