Blog Challenge: Alternate Profession

If you could do any job besides teach what would you do? I have thought about this one a lot since I have already decided that I do not want to teach my whole entire career. Yes, I love what I do and it is so great touching children's lives but I see myself taking a different path eventually. I have listed below three jobs, whether realistic or not, that I would love to have.

Be a Broadway star.
This has always been a dream of mine since I was a little girl. I would love to be singing in a show like Chicago or Wicked! I miss performing so much and sometimes wish I would of made that big move to NYC to try and make something out of myself. A girl can dream....

ESPN field reporter
One of my idols is Erin Andrews, not only is she a gator alum, but she has one of the most amazing jobs. I would love to be down in the dug-outs or on the sidelines of a big college game reporting and interviewing coaches and players. I love sports and this would be a great job to get to meet some of the biggest in the game.

Clothing Boutique shop owner.
I would sell high end jeans, cute dresses, tops, and accessories. Overall very simple, classic, and chic clothing. I imagine something similar to francesca's feel just a little more high end...but not unaffordable. A little perk of this Boutique could be the location NYC or maybe even Hawaii. I guess until I have the money to open my own store I will probably just have to settle with working in a cute boutique.

Locks of Love

Our Lock of Love! 

Seoul Tower. Reminds me of Disney!

Thousands of locks that line the fence overlooking Seoul.

 Dennis and I went on a Night Tour of Seoul this weekend where we got to explore some of the top spots in the city. There were four stops total on the tour and the first being a small folk village where we got to explore traditionally Korean Houses. The second stop was to the biggest shopping district in the world called Myeongdong. It had a variety of stores H&M, Zara, Gap, Mango and even a Smoothie King which Dennis was overly excited about. The third stop was my favorite. We got to visit Seoul Tower which is a tower that is placed atop one of the near-by mountains that overlooks the city of Seoul. When we arrived we first had to take a cable car to the top of the mountain where they stuffed us in like sardines. We get to the top of the mountain and while looking around we see thousands upon thousands of locks placed on the fence which overlooks the city. Our tour guide precedes to tell us that this is a tradition in Seoul for young lovers to place locks upon the fence to symbolize their endless love. Since Dennis and I got married in this city we decided to buy two locks to symbolize our everlasting love. We added them to the fence with a special message inscribed saying who the locks belonged to with a message inspired from my Grammy "Love to you". You are suppose to throw away the keys, Dennis and I did not know this until after we left, sealing your commitment to each other. Next time we visit we will have to bring our keys to throw over the fence hopefully not hitting anyone below. This is one of those unforgettable nights in Seoul that I will treasure always. I love you Dennis Muller and I am so lucky to be locked together with you for the rest of our lives.

Seoul Tower

Rugby

This past weekend I got to watch Dennis play in his first rugby tournament. I was a little nervous the first time he told me he was playing rugby and let's just say after watching the tournament my nervousness has been increased ten fold. It is the roughest sport I have ever seen. People are tackling and laying each other out but unlike football there is NO padding. Thankfully Dennis went through the whole tournament without getting seriously injured. Others weren't so lucky. In this tournament there were three teams that were professional Rugby teams and three other teams that were military teams. Dennis' team, which is one of the military teams, was blessed with playing the three professional teams. They lost every game but I have to say Dennis played very well and even got some compliments from the opposing teams. Overall I am not the biggest fan of this rough sport but I love him and I will support him in whatever he does in life : )

Dennis is number 11! 

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and wasn't too overheated. I will be visiting the states in October for about a month and hopefully I will get to see a lot of you! I just cannot miss going to a gator game, wedding shower, and baby shower. Plus, the most exciting part is that I get to go shopping for my wedding dress!! Hopefully, during my visit we will be finding out more information with Dennis' next assignment so we can start planning the wedding! I can't wait!! 

I love and miss you all! 

Love you,

Breanna Lynne Muller 

Blog Challenge

A friend from the school that I used to teach at in Texas has started a blog challenge and has asked me to join. The challenge is that each week there will be a new question to answer in our blogs. It sounds like a fun idea and I have decided that I am going to participate.

Assignment #1: Dream Vacay

My dream vacay is actually being lived right now in South Korea...just kidding. South Korea is not what I consider a dream vacation just a nice place to explore for about a year. If I could go anywhere in the world it would be Bora Bora in the south pacific. I think it has to be one of the most beautiful, secluded, and relaxing places to be. I would rent a bungalow over the water and lay out at the beach everyday with an adult beverage. I probably would never want to go home : )

The island of Bora Bora

Map of Bora Bora

It is my dream to stay in one of these bungalows! 

Shop until you drop!

This week while Dennis was at work I decided to take a little shopping trip with my friend Yuan down to Seoul. There is shopping mecca down there called the Dongdaemun Market. This market has 26 shopping malls situated over 10 blocks which specialize mostly in clothes, shoes, fabrics, and leather goods. It was traditionally a night market but now is open 18 1/2 hours a day with some stores that are open 24 hours a day. We took the subway down there Wednesday afternoon and I didn't realize the magnitude of this shopping experience. Each shopping mall, as far as I can tell, has little booths set up next to each other that cover the entire floor of the building. There is no wasted space with every inch being taken up by clothes. The first shopping mall we visited had 3 floors of just women's clothing. Then there was also an accessories floor, shoe floor, men's clothing floor, and children's floor. And this is just what I saw. So here I am in my natural habitat of shopping and I am in heaven. One nice perk about Dongdaemun is that you can bargain shop. A lot of times you can get them to go 4,000 or 5,000 won (four or five dollars) lower than the listed price which is already a pretty good deal. Plus, there are a lot of booths with $10 dollar items. The ladies that run those booths don't kid around though, they will always make deals with you if you walk away not accepting their final offer and they will try to make you happy with a better compromise. The one sad realization I had in Dongdeamun is that most of the clothes are not going to fit a 5'9'' girl with some curves. I went to a bathing suit booth and the lady flat out told me that the bathing suits would be too small for my size...haha! With this knowledge, I made sure the two purchases that I made were stretchy material because most of the clothes are one size fits all. And that's one size fits all is made for a small Korean women not your typical American girl. With no dressing rooms and no returning the items I took a gamble but thankfully when I got home both of my dresses fit.

My favorite item that I saw was not the little school girl outfits or the fake victoria secret pink items it was the underwear with padding in the butt region. I thought I should purchase some to enhance my features. LOL!

I hope you all are having a great week and have a great weekend too. Maybe even some of you will go shopping at a mall in my honor this weekend. We will be heading to a Rugby tournament Dennis is playing in this weekend. I think I'm going to be nervous watching the entire time hoping that he doesn't get injured. Pray for him : )

Miss you all,
Breanna

Going to the chapel...

Our Korean Marriage Certificate (In Hangul)

Dennis and I took the big leap today and got married in Korea!!! It was not a typical JOP ceremony that people are accustomed to in the states. It was actually mostly paperwork, walking from building to building, and waiting...a little anti-climatic but with wonderful results in the end. We started off on our hour long bus ride down to Seoul where the US embassy resides. Once we arrived at the embassy we took a number and waited until we were called to an open window. We then preceded to show our passports and were given some paperwork to fill out. After the paperwork was filled out correctly (we had a little glitch the first time) we got the stamp of approval and were instructed to head to the Korean Ward office next. The Korean ward office is where we received the documents, after filling out more paperwork first of course, saying that we were officially married!!! If you look to the right you will see that our marriage certificate from that office is in Korean (Hangul). This paper needed to be translated into English so we weren't quite done yet. We had one last step, where we went to a Korean law firm and waited an hour while they translated our Marriage paperwork. Lots of paperwork and walking but it was well worth it to be called Mrs. Muller in the end. 

Korean Ward Office's "Foreigner" corner

A picture of us in front of the US embassy after we got married!

I know some of you might have questions and I thought I would tackle a few that might be going through your heads.

Is this going to be your only wedding? 
No, we will have a wedding ceremony that our family and friends will attend. We are just waiting until the end of October to know where Dennis' next assignment will be and we will set a location and date.


Why didn't you just wait until you got back to the states? 
Dennis wanted to get me into the military system as soon as possible. Now I will have the benefits of being a military wife instead of being a fiance which they do not recognize. Most importantly, I will be able to be moved with him to his next assignment. (Praying for Italy)

Will you celebrate your anniversary today or when you have another ceremony later?
Dennis and I have decided that we will celebrate our anniversary today, July 19th, 2011. It has a special meaning since both Dennis and I are born on the 19th of a month. It's a great day of the month to celebrate many things : ) (right PaPa?!?)


What does it feel like to be Mrs. Muller?
It feels unbelievable! I couldn't be happier with my life right now.

I hope everyone is well back in the states! I just cooked my first meal as Dennis' wife...hopefully he doesn't get too used to it! Love and miss you all!

Love,
Mrs. Breanna Lynne Muller

Chinese Dumplings

Not much has been happening here in the far east for Dennis and I lately. The reason for this lack of activity is the constant and unrelenting rain that we have been blessed with this entire week. To fill the void of not being able to do outdoor activities I spent my days planning the wedding, reading, working out, cooking dinner, and cleaning. Pretty much mastering my future role as an excellent housewife.  I believe we have entered monsoon season here in Korea so I'm not sure if it is going to be getting much better for the next couple months. Fortunately on Tuesday the weather is looking somewhat nice since Den and I have big plans for that day which I will share with you in my next blog.

This weekend we were lucky enough to be invited over to Punch's apartment, a co-worker of Den's, for a traditional chinese dumpling dinner. His wife, Yuan, is originally from China and had offered to make a small group of us about 200 dumplings. I know 200 dumplings seems like a lot but with five Air Force men they were able to take them all down. We had the option of steamed or boiled and two different kinds of dipping sauces. Garlic mixed with soy sauce or ginger and vinegar mixed together. My favorite combo had to be the steamed dumplings with the sweet ginger sauce....very yummy! I loved that we got to have this experience and that I have become friends with Yuan who also has a little bit of a shopping problem like me. We are heading down to Seoul on Wednesday where she will introduce me to the shopping mecca called the Dongdaemun market. There might be some damage done that day : )

I hope all is well back in the states!  I miss everyone dearly!

Love you,

Bre

The Korean Wedding

Dennis and I were fortunate enough to get to attend a Korean wedding over the weekend. One of the officers he works with is a Korean-American and was getting married to a Korean girl he had met while stationed over here. It was a catholic ceremony that was all in Korean. I tried my best to follow along, since the structure of the wedding is essentially the same as someone getting married in a catholic church in America, but it was still tough. There we some interesting details that made it different from the traditions we are used to. First, the groom walks down the isle, wearing a tux with white gloves, and everyone claps. Next came the bride, in a traditional white dress, with her father, followed by some more clapping. In Korea you do not stand up for the bride as she enters and there are no bridal parties. The rest of the ceremony was pretty normal to the traditions of the catholic church. When you tell the rest of the members "Peace be with you" you bow instead of shaking hands or hugging. As for non-related parts of the actual ceremony, the photographers did not mind coming up to the bride or groom in the middle of the ceremony to fix something for a picture or wipe the sweat off their faces. As for everyone else at the ceremony the attire was very mixed from casual to semi-formal. There were people in cute dresses to people in jean shorts and heels (this is very big in Korea right now). I even saw a guy with a suit jacket and khaki shorts on and he was American and definitely knew better. I guess over in Korea there is less emphasis on how nice you dress for a wedding. Some outfits that were amazing were the mothers of the brides who wore the traditional Korean dress, pictured below.

The reception was held in a cafeteria right next to the church and sadly there was no music or dancing afterwards. They had tons of food but lets just say I did not grab the serving spoons to pick up most of it. There was lots of seafood, full squids, and this prickly looking fruit that was from Thailand. I passed on a lot but thankfully I found some noodles and something that resembled some spicy orange chicken. That was yummy. After the meal was over we were shooed outside by the photographer to take a group picture with the bride and groom. The strangest part about that was the tossing of the bouquet. They had already pre-selected the girl who would catch the bouquet. So there was no fun wrestling match like there sometimes is in America. Just a boring little toss that went directly to the chosen one. Overall, experiencing a wedding of a different culture was very enlightening and it was neat to see different culture's traditions are on their special days.

Dennis and I at the wedding. 

Our Wedding Plans...

Now you're probably wondering "what are your plans for your wedding?". Well, that's a great question. Here is what we are thinking so far. Dennis and I would like to have a destination wedding. We are waiting until we find out in October what his next assignment is to determine where the "destination" will actually be. We are praying for his next base to be in Northern Italy or Germany and we would have our wedding in one of those locations if that happens. Are alternatives are something in the Pacific ocean or Caribbean if our first plan falls through. So start saving up if you would like to come to our special day. It will be a memorable experience. As for our engagement parties, I think we might have one in New Orleans and one in West Palm Beach in December when we come home but that is all up in the air. We will let you know more details as we figure them out ourselves. As for now....we are just going to enjoy being engaged : )

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and thank you for all your love you sent Dennis and I on our engagement. We love and miss you all!

Diamonds are a girl's best friend!

If you haven't heard yet, Dennis and I are officially ENGAGED!!! It happened yesterday evening where Dennis cooked a romantic dinner for me. Then mid-meal he goes to get something from his desk and comes back down on one knee. He then asks me to marry him and of course I say yes! (It might of been a little awkward if I said no with our living situation and all. ) And yes I cried like a little baby. Later we went to "The Pond", the air force bar on base, and celebrated with some drinks and corn hole. As soon as we got home my natural girl instincts kicked in and I called my family and posted on Facebook the evidence. Because remember, it's not real until it's not on Facebook. 

The Story of Dennis and Breanna

It all began a little more than two and half years ago when Dennis and I met at "The Library". No, not the library with the many shelves of books, the bar in downtown Fort Worth. There Dennis wooed me with his charm, intelligence, good looks, and amazing dance moves. There was no turning back from there. I guess I knew it was meant to be when I found out later that night that his last name is Muller, my mom's maiden name. No we are not related.....we had this checked out. But I know my grandfather is happy that I will be carrying on the Muller name. Now two and a half years later Dennis and I are together in Korea, engaged, and couldn't be happier! I love this man and I can't wait to be his wife! 

I love it!

Ain't No Mountain High Enough

Today Den decided it was time to take me hiking up one of the various mountains in Korea. Let me just tell you I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I have hiked before, in America, and I know it can be exhausting and hard at times but nothing compares to hiking in Korea. Koreans love to hike. You see them on the trails with all the latest hiking gear and attire. Dennis was telling me on the weekends the hiking trails are packed. So when I saw the older ladies in their hiking boots with their hiking canes I thought I can handle this...boy was I in for a surprise. One of the big differences between hiking in America and hiking in Korea are switchbacks. American mountains usually have switchbacks so that climbing up the mountain doesn't have as intense of an incline as just climbing straight up. Koreans do not feel the same way. Their trails go straight up the mountain...NO switchbacks. They will even make staircases or add rails in order for hikers to get from point A to point B as fast as possible. So this hike was 45 minutes of high intense climbing with Dennis leading the way at a fast pace. Throughout the entire hike I was drenched in sweat from head to toe and out of breath. It would of been like being on the treadmill for 45 minutes going at a fast walk with the incline at it's highest setting the entire time. The greatest feeling was getting to the top of that peak and knowing what I had accomplished. Unfortunately, we still had to climb down but at least that's a lot easier.

The top of the peak! 

Domination

Den attempting to do a hand stand

My way better hand stand : )

Happy Birthday America!

Den and I decided that we needed to see some fireworks and feel all American on the 4th so we headed down to Osan AFB which is just south of Seoul. After two different bus rides, both an hour long, we made it down to the base. There they had a little celebration called liberty fest with various foods, beverages, bands, and lots of children's activities. The best part had to be the fireworks and being proud to be an American. Here are some pictures from that night.  

The enlisted guys D works with.

Fireworks! 

First Impressions...

After my 14 hour flight on Korean air in my small coach seat and many movies I have made it to South Korea. My knight in shining armor, Dennis, was at the airport waiting patiently for me as I got my luggage and went through customs. Now I have been in Korea for a whole weekend and let me tell you a little bit about my adventures so far. Dennis and I are living on base in a small city called Uijeongbu, which is about 45 minutes north of Seoul. We took a bus to the city and I have already figured out here that the public transportation around here is amazing. There are buses that will take you anywhere in town or on the peninsula you would like to go. Cabs are also very abundant. Just be ready if you take one….they see red lights more like stop signs and will run them if they feel necessary. As for what the cities look like. If you think of China town in New York City and just imagine the entire city looking like that. Huge lit up signs, with big Korean characters, for every business and usually anime characters on everything. Overall, not the prettiest place to live. Fortunately, the base, yet small, is nice and is surrounded by some beautiful mountains, which is probably the most redeeming quality of the Korean landscape.

These first couple of days here have been hard to adjust with the huge time change. We are thirteen hours ahead of ET time in America. Like a friend of mine told me, we are in the future here. I have been sleeping pretty well through the night but waking up a little too early. Because of this I might take a nap or two during the day. Dennis likes to call me the “bed sloth” since all I seem to do is lie in bed and wake up only for workouts and feeding times. As for my living quarters….they are very tiny and Dennis was kind enough to make some space for me in the closet and drawers. I am sure he was so excited about that. Thankfully there is a sufficient amount of storage space for me to fit all my clothes that I bought over. This makes a girl very happy : )

I have eaten a couple meals since I have been to Korea and if you can believe it I have even had chicken fingers with french fries at the bases bowling alley. I had my first Korean bbq my second night in town which was very tasty. They actually cook the meat at the table on a mini grill and then you wrap it with some rice in a lettuce leaf. Add some Korean bbq sauce and you have a very tasty lettuce wrap. As for the famous cabbage dish called Kimchi…not going to be a favorite of mine. We have also eaten at a Chinese restaurant and even a German restaurant (Which was nothing like the real thing and didn’t even have Wiener schnitzel…very disappointing). They did have a really amazing chicken teriyaki pizza that Dennis got. Not really sure how that is German but it was delicious.  Overall, I am excited to try new things but I am happy that I will always have the option of popeyes on base : )

I hope everybody has a great 4^th of July. Dennis and I will be heading down to Osan Air Force base to celebrate the holiday. Should be a good time since they will be having a fireworks show in the evening. I hope you all have a wonderful 4th of July weekend celebrating in the States. I miss you all. 

Love,

Bre

PS-Below is a map of South Korea...you can find the city Dennis and I are living in just north of Seoul.