Rain, rain, go away, Rosie doesn’t want a flight delay!
I always have the worst luck when it comes to traveling. Nine times out of ten, my flights are always delayed, and then somehow, I end up running to my connecting flights. Hoping for the best today, but always preparing for the worst! That’s the Army way, hooah!
Tomorrow I take a very long journey back to the USA, about 25 hours, door to door. It’s a 2 hour bus ride, waiting in the airport for a few hours, then 13 hours to my layover, 2 hours there (YUM AMAERICAN FOOD!), and then 2 hours to Philly. Then the shortest and best part of my journey, 20 minutes to my house in NJ chauffeured by my parents.
I have a jet-lag plan (again) and I hope it works this time. Last time my trip back was way longer: I had three layovers and the total door to door time was more like 35 hours. I tried not to sleep at all and drank lots of caffeine, it was an epic fail and I was sick for over a week. This time I plan on eating light starting today at lunch, to try to fix my eating schedule to America time. Then I am going to drink tons of extra water (even though I drink a lot already.) I am going to wake up early tomorrow and only drink my morning coffee (no more caffeine the rest of the trip.) I’m not going to eat a big lunch at the airport tomorrow and I am going to try to avoid all airplane food. I am going to sleep 6 hours when my flight leaves Korea and then stay awake for the rest of my trip, when I land at my layover, I am going to eat a big dinner because it will be dinner time, then I will not eat again until I wake up safely in my childhood bed the next day. Let’s hope this works!
Since I will be awake a lot on my trip, I have planned out some reading material.
I downloaded Keeping Faith by Jodi Picoult when it was on sale a few weeks ago, and I just started to read it last night. This will be my airport and airplane reading material to the USA.
When I get back, I have Fly Away by Kristin Hannah waiting for me. I pre-ordered it and it was delivered on April 23. Fly away is the sequel to Firefly Lane, which I read last year. Kristin Hannah has quickly become one of my favorite authors. I fell in love with the characters from Firefly Lane and I am so excited to reconnect with them in Fly Away.
On my way back to Korea, I plan on reading Twerp by Mark Goldblatt, which will be released on May 28. This is Mark Goldblatt’s first Young Adult novel and I am excited to read it. I read on Netgally that it’s for any lovers of Jerry Spinelli, and I love him.
I also plan on finding the Queen of Everything by Deb Caletti while I am home, and hope to re-read that, too, on my way back to Korea.
I will be going to two book sales while I am back home, and hope to get some great books there too! I have been itching for some good book sales; I haven’t been to any in over a year!!
This week only, you can download Easy Muffin Tin Meals from Amazon for your Kindle for only 99 cents (normally $3.99)! I don’t know about you, but I love making muffin meals. Muffin tin meals are great for portion control and are easy to cook ahead of time to reheat for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. There are over 30 great recipes, in this cookbook, waiting for you to try out! (includes pictures!)
Download this Kindle cookbook today so that you don’t miss out on some yummy meals that your family will love! Amazon Prime Members can borrow it for FREE!
The other day, while we were at the Seoul National Cemetery, I stumbled upon a book sale. I started to jump up and down (quite literally) and told Jim that I was going to look at the books. He said, “Rose, you can’t read Korean!” And I replied, “Oh, I’m sure I will find something!” And of course, I did.
This is a copy of Post Secret. Have you heard of it? People send in anonymous secrets to a guy named Frank Warren, who lives in Maryland, and then he puts them into a book, or on the internet. This version of the book is in English AND Korean. The Korean translation of the secret is either on the same page as the secret or on the opposite page. How cool is that? I told Jim I would find something I could read! Check out the Post Secret website.
I could have used this reminder a few months ago.
Even though every day should be Earth Day, once a year, on April 22, Earth Day is celebrated all around the world. Today only, there are four children’s books on sale at Amazon for your Kindle.
Click here for the Kindle books on sale for $1.99 for Earth Day! (Prime Members can borrow them for FREE!)
Happy Earth Day everyone! I thought I would share the video I showed the kids I tutor today for Earth Day. It’s very informative for kids and has a cute storyline. (Also, oddly enough, the voices of the characters sound like the voices from Rugrats on Nickelodeon.)
Always remember, be kind to our planet, it’s the only one we have. REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE!
People think going to a cemetery is creepy, and although I guess it could be thought of as so, I don’t think that way. This past week Jim and I went over to the Seoul National Cemetery. You can take the Line 4 from Seoul Station to get there, the exit takes you right up to the cemetery. I like when this happens because then we don’t have to go searching for the place, and then get lost.
The Seoul National Cemetery is a lot like the Arlington National Cemetery in D.C. (at least that’s what Jim said because I have never been there before.) It’s a beautiful place with lots to see.
We went on a perfect day: the Cherry Blossoms were out and it was warm and sunny. There’s a lot of walking involved at this destination so put on comfortable sneakers and bring snacks (I got hungry and we had to leave, I’m like Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors, I get angry when I’m not fed, FEED ME!) There is a lot of open space to have a picnic and read a good book; I read while Jim went around and took pictures.
Even though I hate “hiking,” climbing to the top of the cemetery was worth it. It was nice to look out over the city, I felt like I was actually in the mountains.
The Hello Kitty Cafe has been on the top of my list of places to visit in Korea since I found out it existed. I have been a Hello Kitty fan since I was 15. I can honestly say that coming to Korea has not only heightened my love for Hello Kitty, but has turned it into an obsession. (as if asking for the Hello Kitty bedset for my 16th Birthday wasn’t an obsession…)
I had been trying to figure out which Hello Kitty Cafe location was best for us to visit (there are several) and I finally chose the one near Hongik University in Seoul. We took the train from AK Plaza in Pyeongtaek to Seoul, then took Subway Line 1 to City Hall and then transferred to Subway Line 2 to Hongik University. From there we took exit number 9, walked straight out of the exit past the first left (it was immediately after we walked out the exit) and turned down our second left (there was a TGI Fridays on our left as we turned.) We walked to the first cross walk and turned right to cross the street. We then turned right again when we were across the street and made our first left at this corner:
We continued to walk on the left side of the road and looked left as we walked. The Hello Kitty Cafe was on our left down a small ally. (It is directly past the Ho Bar, but there is more than one Ho bar in this area.)
The Hello Kitty Cafe is AWESOME! This place is a MUST SEE for any Hello Kitty fan or anyone with little girls who like Hello Kitty. There are two levels; we sat on the top-level where there is more seating. Hopefully, I’ll be able to go back before I leave, or visit another location; it is just too cute!
Best friends, Sydney, Ella, and Astrid, had high hopes for the summer after their senior year of high school , but when Astrid is found dead from an overdose, Ella and Sydney are left to pick up the pieces and try to move on with their lives. Not only are Ella and Sydney left with so many unanswered questions, but they are also left to wonder if they ever really knew Astrid, at all. When Ella starts getting cryptic messages from Astrid, she wonders if she is really dead or if someone is playing tricks with her head. Sydney, on the other hand, feels responsible for her friend’s death and doesn’t know how to cope emotionally. As summer moves forward, and college becomes reality, the girls wonder if their lives will ever be normal again.
I wish I could say The After Girls, Leah Konen’s debut novel, is now one of my favorite books, but I can’t. I had high hopes for this book, but it didn’t move fast enough for me. The plot kept getting thicker, but then nothing was resolving itself in a timely manner. At one point I thought the book was going to turn into a series, because it was nearing the end and it hadn’t started to wrap itself up, but luckily, that isn’t the case.
When I first read the synopsis of The After Girls, I thought, “Oh, this sounds kind of like Pretty Little Liars, I’ll read it!” But instead of being LIKE Pretty Little Liars by Sara Shepard, it basically IS Pretty Little Liars, but with different characters. I kept picturing the girls from the Pretty Little Liars TV show, as the characters in the book, and couldn’t get my mind away from them. This was unfortunate because I kept thinking that the good guys were the bad guys and vice versa.
I almost stopped reading this The After Girls twice: once when I first started reading it, and once about halfway through, I even read two books between the time I started this book and finished it. But in the end, I’m glad I finished it. The ending was not what I expected at all. I had all of these ideas of who did what, and I was dead wrong, no pun intended.
Even though I didn’t love the book, I did like the characters, especially Sydney and Ella. Sydney is in a band and is a part of an awkward love triangle with her band mates. She plays violin and is hoping to become famous with her band. Sydney’s band sounded really cool and I think if they were real, I would go see them play. Ella works in a coffee shop, but not Starbucks, and I enjoyed the coffee shop scenes; it reminded me of the good times I had working at Starbucks, and all of the hustle and bustle. Ella also becomes a part of an awkward love triangle between her high school boyfriend and Astrid’s estranged cousin.
If you like mysteries and can get over the fact that this storyline is way too similar to Pretty Little Liars, then the The After Girls by Leah Konen is worth reading. If you haven’t read or watched PLL, then I think you will definitely like this book, as well. If I hadn’t invested so much time into PLL, then I definitely would have enjoyed The After Girls a lot more. For a debut novel, Leah Konen does a good job at creating likeable characters and an interesting storyline; who knows, maybe she’s a huge PLL fan, as well.
I was given an ARC e-book of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Most of my friends were in band, and most of my free time during school was spent within twenty feet of the band room. – Quintin, pg.11 (This sums up my senior year of high school, perfectly.)
You see how fake it all is. It’s not even hard enough to be made out of plastic. It’s a paper town. I mean look at it Q: look at all those cul-de-sacs, those streets that turn in on themselves, all the houses that were built to fall apart. All those paper people living in their paper houses, burning the future to stay warm. All the paper kids drinking beer some bum bought for them at the paper convenience store. Everyone demented with the mania of owning things. All the things paper-thin and paper-frail. – Margo, pg. 58-59
I always felt like you had to be important to have enemies – Quintin, pg. 60
I mean, at some point, you gotta stop looking up at the sky, or one of these days you’ll look back down and see that you floated away, too. – Detective, pg. 150
“The longer I do my job,” he said, “the more I realize that humans lack good mirrors. It’s so hard for anyone to show us how we look, and so hard for us to show anyone how we feel.” – Quintin’s Dad, pg. 196
Life, Army Wife Style 