Korea Safari

I absolutely had to blog about my recent snowboarding fiasco. It was all around a disaster. It was through an organization called Korea Safari, they plan trips (mainly for foreigners). The group was about 40 and took 2 buses.

E and I head over to Bundang Friday night to meet up with Dan, since we have to be in Seoul (which is about an hour away) for an 8am bus to the ski resort. E and I have a few drinks then run over to Pub 210 to find Mr. Dan. Mr. Dan is...well...drunk by the time we get to him. It takes about 2 hours for us to coax him home into bed. By this time it's probably around 3am or so...keeping in mind that we have to wake up at around 630 to make it to the bus on time.

We go to sleep.

I hear the alarm go off, but don't even think about the significance of it.

I wake up at 715am.

Not as frantically as I should have, I roll over and wake E up.

"E..it's 715...it's 715." I whisper in a drunken/sleeepy haze. He sits upright and looks at the clock before letting out an obscenity or two. We both get up and attempt to wake Dan.

Fail.

Dan is unconscious. Nothing will rouse him.

I decide to call the company to see what our options are. I thought E was awake with me in this decision. But after I get off the phone with a guy who tells me we can take a train, I look over and E is asleep again.

Anger begins to boil up inside of me..but knowing we can take the train, sleep takes control and I fall back onto my pillow.

I awake again at 9am. Both guys are still unconscious. I sit around debating what to do. The decision was to go to the store and buy water, as I was a little dehydrated from the drinking. I get up, leave the apartment and go to the store, come back a few minutes later only to realize I'm locked out. I don't know the code to Dan's apartment.

So I sit, fuming, in the freezing cold hallway, guzzling my water...again, debating on what to do. I get too cold after about 30minutes and knock on the door. No answer. I wait a few more minutes. Knock again. No answer. I call while knocking, Dan answers his phone, grumbles and hangs up. I call again. Finally an answer. I ask for the code he gives it to me and I go back into the warmth of the apartment. Still, they are asleep. I give up and lay back down.

We wake up at 1215. I'm angry. Dan's angry. E's angry. I tell them that we can catch the train, the ski resort is only an hour away (ish...) from Seoul. E and I agree it would still be worth it to go. We start to get ready. All the while Dan is asking us what we're doing..what's the plan? Where are you going?

I needed food in my system as well, so the plan (that we repeatedly said) was to get McDonalds and then head to the train station. It took about 30 minutes to get the boys dressed and out of the apartment and walking in the right direction.

By this point I'm furious.

We get McDonalds, jump on the bus into Seoul. The bus is too crowded, so we jump off the bus and onto another, slightly less crowded bus. We get to Seoul Station, get on the subway and head to ChangDong Station, where the train to the ski resort should be. When we get to Changdong Station, some kids tell us we're at the wrong station that we should go to Chongyangni Station. So we get BACK on the subway and go back down to Chongyangni Station. At Chongyangni Station, we run to get a ticket to the train (there's a difference between the train and subway, by the way..train is faster). The ticket lady tells us there's no train. It's canceled since they built a new subway line.

So we get BACK on the subway. Ride for two stops. Transfer to a different subway line. Then ride for an hour to the station. Catch a cab to the resort. And wait for the guy to bring our gear.

All in all, what should have taken 2 hours took 6 hours.

Once we got on the slopes though, I felt much better. Dan however, forgot to bring gloves. So he buys a new pair and loses them 10 minutes later.

The next morning they serve breakfast..a make it yourself breakfast with Eggs and bread and onions and lemons (random...weird Koreans). Again..big surprise, we slept in. So by the time we get downstairs there's only 1 egg left. We make an egg sandwich and split it between the three of us. So..needless to say, we're still hungry and in desperate need of coffee.

So we walk down to the convenient store. Get coffee and a small thing of eggs to cook. Get back to the hotel, cook the eggs make new sandwiches. And as we're eating those sandwiches, they bring a whole new tray of 24 eggs.

It was an adventure...a very memorable adventure. I can't wait to go again!...maybe no drinking next time around!

Home Sweet...Officetell?

An Officetell: A studio like apartment that some people use as offices and some people (such as myself) use to live in. Usually comes furnished with the necessary things (kitchen, washer/dryer, bathroom..window?).

My posts seem to be getting more and more spaced out! Less and less is happening, that's why.

This is going to sound more awful then I intend for it to, but I miss my bed. I haven't slept in my own bed for over a week now. It's been an interesting month..I will say that.

I'm still on "break" and so far have no hopes of getting work to help me out next month. It's BS..and I'm a little frustrated by it. I luckily got paid this month, but next month is going to be a bit disastrous...especially being Christmas!!

I can't believe Thanksgiving is next week! Korea (obviously) doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving, since it's clearly an American holiday. But hopefully there will be some people (and by people I do actually mean bars..."foreigner bars" as they're so fondly termed) throwing some good old fashioned Thanksgiving dinners for us expats. If I had access to a kitchen, I would do it myself (since I don't' have to work!) buuuut all I have is a two top gas stove. Though I am sure a kitchen savvy person could make do with that.

I've been making a ton of new friends though, so that's been awesome. It's been a trip. And I'm hoping to get some travel plans happening for New Years!

<3 the Holidays...though I miss my family and friends back home and wish I could be there with you to celebrate (or that you could be here!)

Have You Noticed a Theme?

The adventures of the past 5 days definitely need to be noted.

Thursday: After my one class of the week, a private tutoring session, I went to Itaewon in Seoul (which is rightfully dubbed the foreigner town...because of all the foreigners) to see a Stand Up Seoul show. Stand Up Seoul is a comedy show for stand up comedians (go figure). My friend Dan was performing, so I met up with him and Matt and watched as 10 other comedians went first. I found the first 12 or so to be quite humorous, but apparently I was one of the only girls in the audience that was capable of laughing. The audience consisted mainly of other comedians and lesbians with no sense of humor. And that is not a judgmental statement, I have nothing against lesbians. But why come to a comedy show and take up space if you can't find the humor in things? So they stood around (actually blocking my view) and chatted in pure disgust about how things were just not funny. It made me a little angry...and I'm sure it made the performers even angrier.

Friday: Lazy days. I woke up blissfully at 11am to my phone ringing. It was Mr. Eddie to tell me something very interesting that happened in life. I was utterly perplexed by this news, but chuckled on the inside knowing what I know and being who I am. I am quite the chuckler. I then showered, went to Starbucks for breakfast. Stopped by Kinkos to print some things (doesn't it sound like I'm in America??) Then I spent about 7 hours watching season 4 of Dexter!!!!! Matt (lucky for me since I've been dying to see season 4 since I got off the plane 3 months ago) has seasons 1-4 on his computer. It made me intensely happy. I only got through the first 7 episodes and need to find time to watch the rest. At the end of the day, I had dinner with Matt.

Saturday: Got home at 9:20am just in time for my 10am class. Jumped in the shower, flew out the door with wet hair and no makeup. Ran to the corner store for breakfast, ran to class, ran to the computer to print the days lesson plan, ran to class. Taught class...listened to my class complain about the article because they don't like politics. Freakn' adults complain about everything. Ran home, fixed my hair, ran to the train station to meet up with the Suwon crew to head to the Seven Luck Casino in Seoul! Spent 12000w, lost 12000w (equaling about $12). We then headed downstairs to the buffet/wine buffet. Unlimited food...unlimited wine. It was a good night. We then proceeded to become obnoxiously loud (what do you expect when you give people unlimited amounts of wine??). Then headed to Itaewon. Ended up on Hooker Hill...yes, that's a real place..and yes..there are actual hookers there. We watched as young soldiers ventured in and out of the brothels. Made fun of a few guys. Watched as the young soldiers proceeded to get into a fight...and had to be escorted out by the military police who came a runnin in to the rescue at the last minute. Went to another bar where things got kind of feisty within the Suwon crew. Headed home.

Sunday: Sleep. Sleeeeeep. Facebook. Dinner with Chana. Sleep.

Monday: Woken up by my student calling me FROM class with Eddie...after a quick greeting with me, handed the phone to Eddie who was just as perplexed by the conversation as I was. Went to work, filled up my 2 liter water bottle, went to Starbucks for breakfast. And now I'm here. Pretty eventful day.

It's been a while, eh?

It's been a few days since I posted last. With my life changing and Halloween weekend, I've been a smidge preoccupied.

Where to begin??

Halloweeeeeen!!!!

By the way...

HAPPY HALLOWEEEEEEN!!!!!

It's been a fun one, for sure. On friday night, my friend, Veanessa came to Suwon and we rocked it out. I <3 that girl. She's awesome and I always have fun with her. And I feel like she's one of those people that just gets me. She's half black/half Korean as well...so we share a background and personality wise she's just wonderful. We went to the BC bar, which is the "foreigner" bar here in Suwon, not knowing it was Halloween/costume party! It was awesome, but I wish I had dressed up! However, we only stayed for like an hour or so...and after we left, I would have been super embarrassed if I were in costume.

Korean's don't really celebrate Halloween. It's a tradition brought over from the western foreigners.

Saturday, I taught then went to Hongdae, which is in Seoul. I went with my Suwon friends and it was awesome to get to hang out with them for a little while. But then I had to go meet M and the Bundang crew. That was an eventful/hilarious time. Well, it was funny in the beginning while I was still sufficiently intoxicated..but when the buz started to wear off, I got a smidge annoyed. You see..what had happened was...! I went to this club with Clancy and Alyssa (Suwon people, Alyssa's one of my new favorites as well, she's great!), to meet M. From there we tried to head back (apparently there was some kind of drama or something that happened) so we tried to go back to meet up with the Suwon people again...Alyssa and Clancy went ahead of me because I was with M and trying to wait for the Bundang people. We then tried to go to this park party. There were both Bundang and Suwon people there, so it was the perfect meeting point for all of us. The problem was that some of the Bundang boys were hammered and kept following little Korean women down dark alleyways (that's an exaggeration! They just followed them down the street). So we kept losing track of people. We would walk about 10 feet, then have to turn around and coral everyone. This went on for about 2 hours. Eventually we gave up and ate some TACO BELL!!!! Best decision of the evening...until I laid down to go to bed and my stomach wanted to release the alcohol/taco bell combo through the entrance. Luckily I kept it down and was able to somewhat fall asleep.

Bedtime was hilarious fun. M, Aaron and I ended up all at M's house. Aaron was planning on sleeping on the floor, so I tried to offer him the bed, thinking I could take the couch, since I'm considerably short. Then the man on man action put me in the middle of the bed (although, I think that both M and Aaron would be cool enough to share a bed without a girl in between them...not gay, just relaxed). It felt like a middle school slumber party (except that in middle school I never slumbered with boys!) I kid you not, however, at one point the three of us were spooning. It was really funny. And I couldn't decide if I had dreamed it or not. Then in the morning we discussed the spooning and decided that there are a variety of spooning options...probably the most interesting/fun morning after conversation I've ever had.

I then spent Sunday with M being lazy, watching a movie..well..kind of. He was in the midst of domestic chores and I was attempting to watch a movie but ended up sleeping through most of it. Then we went to dinner with some of his friends, to TakGalbi...or chicken Korean BBQ (?). It was DELICIOUS. <3 it.

Today was kind of difficult. I have the next month off work, and just knowing that I don't have to work tomorrow, I was essentially checked out. Some of my students annoyed me beyond all reason. Especially the middle school/high school class. I walked in, being happy having prepared some fun Halloween activities..but intended to first go over their quizzes (which they all failed miserably!..hence the going over). And they were all super moody. Didn't talk, just all stared at the table quietly. I had the sincerest desire to tell them to either shape up or ship out....Cheer up, or get the F out of my classroom...freakn Debbie Downers!!! But of course, I'm not "allowed" to do that. They then told me that on the last day of the month, the school provides some money to get some food, so I asked my cousin about it...and the answer was no... Sorry Kiddos. We played some games, ate some candy and then called it a night. Then the next class...I was annoyed...for 50 whole minutes, just wanted to scream and yell at this guy. He has no idea what being rude means...and he's kind of a know-it-all.

Finally, my favorite last class took me out to Samgyupsal (BBQ pork) and Soju. That honestly made my day. They are most definitely my favorites and the coolest students I had the pleasure of working with (in my very brief time here!). I <3 hanging out with them. It's not work, it's fun. And it always ends up being more of a language exchange, they teach me Korean, but we speak in English. :) They make me heppy...and I'll miss them a lot.

That's my story and I'm stickn to it!

Halloween Shenanigans

Halloween stupidity has already begun. I was putting together my costume...and put it together while wearing it, so now I'm stuck in my costume and unless I want to repeat the entire process, I have to just wear the thing for the rest of the night. It's almost 3pm. Which means more than 24 hours in this getup...without wrecking it!

But I have a new dream for you to analyze!!

There were four of us in this weird limbo space...everything was white and there were white pillars in the empty space around us. My "boyfriend" broke up with me and my friend broke up with his girlfriend at the same time. I don't remember the reaction from the other couple because I was distraught beyond all reason. I was sobbing and screaming after him, begging him to stay. My friend and I then looked at each other and kind of shrugged, saying "what do we do now?" So we walked together out of limbo and into the real world. But the minute we made plans to do something, I slipped away at the first chance that I got to sit on the other side of my bed and cry.

I awoke from this dream in tears.

Any ideas? This one legit perplexes me. What is happening in my brain right now?

Dead as a Doornail

What is a doornail? Did I totally screw up that idiom?! Doorknob?? Either way, how is a doornail/knob/other dead?

Anyway.

I think I finally killed the last mosquito that's been suckin' up all my juices. I killed him with great happiness too. I'm so itchy because of him and his little brother/sister/cousin/frand. There are two bites on my right pointer finger knuckle alone..totaling 15 mosquito bites between what I assume to be 2 mosquitoes. Serious dislike.

And because I scratch at them my skin, especially my legs, are pockmarked. No bueno, mosquito, no bueno.

Oh the Memories I'm Making

This weekend was probably the first weekend I didn't go to Seoul since I've been here! It was actually kind of nice.

I went out on Friday night (first with my class then with my friends). And had a lot of fun. Got to know some new people. There are actually some pretty cool people here in Suwon.

Then Saturday, my friend Matt came up to Suwon and we had a lazy weekend. We laid around watching movies/sleeping/eating for two days straight. It was pretty wonderful. And a nice break from drinking! (He can't drink at the moment..antibiotics). Not that I dislike drinking, but the drinking culture here is a little rough on my digestive system, blood stream and liver (which I suppose is a part of my digestive system!) I felt bad though because he stayed longer than he should have and didn't get any of his work done this weekend :/

But now on to my big story of the day!! (or weekend)...

My washing machine broke!!!!

I have no idea what happened, I was just washing some towels, just like 3 so the machine wasn't full at all, not even close. I turned it on, and sometimes it overheats and turns off. But this time, when I tried to restart it, it stopped, made a continuous humming sound and flashed EF. I tried to turn it completely off, but none of the buttons worked! So Matt and I went down to try to find the maintenance man..but it was after hours so he wasn't working. We tried to ask the convenience store man..but he had no idea and told us to ask the guard. We tried to ask the guard, but the guard (being the grumpy old...I mean OOOLLLDDDD man that he is) just kind of brushed us aside. Even my neighbor, who's so nice got in on the action. She spoke a little English so she tried to help us. But to no avail.

The result: Saturday-Monday morning I had to listen to the weird humming of the machine and be constantly distracted by the blinking lights. I was also enveloped in a constant fear that the machine would just go up in flames or explode. I have such irrational fears.

Finally, today I went down to the maintenance office and found the man working. I tried to ask him in my very limited Korean to come look at my washing machine...he didn't know what I was saying, go figure. At first he thought I wanted to rent an apartment so he walked me to the leasing office. Then he started pulling out paperwork and everything concerning my apartment. And I tried making hand motions and sounds...just looking crazy! Eventually he understood "AH! Washing Machine trouble?!?" "YESSSS!!!!!!"

He then came up to my apartment, took a look, played with the buttons (yes the ones that don't work). Opened one of my closet doors, flipped the electrical circuit breaker, turned it off, turned it on and it was done. Two seconds to fix what consumed my entire weekend with annoyance.

Communication is essential to life.

*EDIT*
ANNNDDD more to add.

I didn't know mosquitos could survive in such cold conditions. But I slept with my window open the last two nights and I'm covered in mosquito bites!! AGAIN! And I see them flying around..I've already killed 2...who knows how many are currently in my apartment, breeding.

Now that That's Done

Now the allotted time for venting my anger through any and all necessary channels is up, time to resume life as normal. Looking forward to the weekend. And next weekend is Halloween!! Still debating on my costume..it might be a little controversial and I may overhear a lot of gossip about it. But they gossip regardless!

Most days I'm ok..but I have these days where I miss you beyond all reason, beyond all words. I wish you were here, and I'm terrified I may lose you forever.

To Lighten the Mood

Sooo to lighten up the mood from my last post...I have a new funny story.

I went to the bar and this girl comes up to me and says "HI!!!!!! Do you remember me?!?" And she looks familiar (she's Korean) so I say, "yes, of course..." And then she reaches in to hug me..and it suddenly dawns on me as to who she is. She is the cult member that STALKED me into my apartment building and tried to follow me onto the elevator crying about how much she wanted to save me...yep..in my bar.

and now to dampen the mood again!
I confronted the cuzzo about what happened..and she denied it. 100% denied it..even though my mom specifically said that the cuzzo called her and told her exactly what happened. WTF. But I called her out and told her my mom has health issues and that she just made my mom's health issues worse by stressing her out (which is true). But..someone in this situation is lying...and it ain't me!

Venting Time

I'm so ridiculously angry and will honestly probably have a screaming fit with my cousin later. I'm so angry I'm crying because I'm a stupid girl and I cry when I'm mad.

Sooo..I've been late to work right? I know this..they know this..we've all had happy wonderful discussions about it filled with rainbows and butterflies. They even bought me a shnazzy new alarm clock that is ridiculously cute and matches my apartments decor perfectly. And having tested it's usefulness this morning, I can attest to the fact that it is quite effective at making me jump out of bed and run across the room to silence it before the entire building wakes up and runs outside for the fire alarm that is my clock. So, as long as it's trustworthy and doesn't fail, I don't think I will have trouble waking up any more.

But back to me being angry. My cousin, who I work with, yesterday called my mom to tell her about my tardiness (by the way, people who know me...including my parents know that this is a recurring theme in my life. I'm just not a morning person..never have been, probably never will be). My mom kind of dismissed her because she was busy. The my cousin comes to tell me that my mom called her...a bold faced lie. So then, she calls my mom again today. We weren't sure if she was calling because she needed some other information from my mom or something..but no..she was simply calling to tattle tell. Yes. Tattle tell. Just to reiterate, she called my mom JUST to tell her I was late to work.

WHAT THE F. DOES MY MOM HAVE TO DO WITH MY WORK LIFE?! It's not like my mom is here and can wake me up in the morning. My mom can't even call me to wake me up in the morning because my phone isn't capable of sending or receiving out of country calls. So my little spiteful tattle tell cousin just essentially sent my mom into a spiral for no reason whatsoever.

And just to make matters even more fun. My relationship with my mom has been a little strained since I got here. I'm not sure why really. Perhaps she's just worried..but we went from being bff's to barely being able to talk to each other. Soooo...now I can't talk to my mom for a while...it'll probably be a good two weeks before I can even attempt to talk to her.

Way to go, tattle tell cousin, bravo.

Oh the Adventures We'll Have

Ok so it's more like, "Oh the adventures I did have...TODAY."

To start..I was late for class, AGAIN. (To which I was told if I'm late again in October I won't get to work in November..so not fired, just suspended??) No buenooooo. I woke up at 6:32am, class is at 6:30. I grabbed the first shirt I could find and RAN out the door...looking like a crazy person. Got to class at about 6:43. And taught as normal. I was able to sneak by the front desk girls so when the girl brought my class complimentary coffee, she saw me teaching as if I had been there the whole time.

After class, I left quickly...trying not to be seen since I looked like a disaster. Ran all the way home only to realize once entering my apartment and looking in the mirror that my sweater was COMPLETELY 100% see through. My flowery cream colored bra and my extra large cleavage all blatantly out in the open for the world to see...in front of my business men students. Could I be any more disrespectful? First I'm late, then I show off the girls. BAHH not ok, friends, not ok at all!

Then I went to the bank to try and transfer money home...only to be disappointed by the exchange rate. I thought it would be about the same, but it's a lot less. Makes my life a little more difficult, but manageable I think. At least I don't have to pay rent! (unless I'm late again!). The guy was very nice and spoke English well, and helped me get the best rate possible so I opened a savings account as well!

THEN the fun really began. I went to the market because I wanted to make some soup. It's cheap and easy and since it's cold out it will go well, and a pot of soup is a great lunch that can easily last a few weeks! Sooo, I found all the ingredients I needed except for green onions...then I realized I have no idea how to say green onion in Korean. I whip out my handy dandy "hand phone" and look up the word..usually it gives a definition in Korean, but this time it literally said "Green onion: Spring Onion" all in English. So I tried to show it to a lady who was working in produce and she had no idea what it said. She then takes my phone and hands it to everyone in the store and the next thing I know...EVERYONE in the store (employees AND other customers) were gathered around my phone trying to figure it out until one young guy finally realizes what I mean...except they think I just want plain onions. So the original produce lady walks me over the onions..and I have to explain using hand motions not "circle" (in hand motions) but long (in hand motions) theeeen "ooooooooh!!!" And walks over and grabs a stalk of green onion.

Hilarious business the things I get myself into.

The soup it pretty ok though. It's not as flavorful as it could be...maybe it just needs more base. But it's filling, with it's potatoes, tofu, green peppers, and onions! Perfect lunch on a cold afternoon.

:)

Soooo Friday was a randomly emotional day for me (it happens sometimes..don't deny it, we all do it)..and you could probably tell that by my previous I-Hate-Men post. But on Friday night, I went to the BC, a popular western bar here (one I don't particularly enjoy, but a lot of my friends hang out there and drinks are free for ladies on Fridays..so I'm drawn to it since I'm poor!) and I enjoyed a few drinks with Josh and Paul. Then Veanessa shows up in Suwon, so we go out (first for food then for drank...THEN for dancing!) She honestly makes Suwon fun for me and I <3 it and am thankful for her!

We got hit on by this weird kind of cute Korean guy. I gave him my number and then he texted me the rest of the night..half of which was in Korean and I couldn't understand it! But it made me feel good that I got hit on my a Korean man...although he may have been one of those weird Korean man thieving prostitutes my mom was warning me about ;)

On Saturday I ended up going to see my friend. I was a little...hesitant about it because it felt like it could be just a "booty call" kind of hang out and I'm honestly not really down with that. If you want to hang out, we can hang out..if you just want to have sex...go to the red light district, there's one in every city. ..it's what they get paid for anyway. But it ended up being a lot of fun. We went to play some pool then got tacos (which I feel like is a huge feat here in Korea and was really excited for them!) then because it was like storming out we decided to just go hang out and watch a movie in the apartment (which then kind of adds to my suspicions...). But as it turns out, he's a pretty decent, very sweet guy. And we snuggled...which I thoroughly enjoy.

THEN on Sunday, we went into Seoul for a hotdog eating contest! It was a lot of fun! The host was a "famous" comedian, even though no one knew who he was. I've never seen this kind of thing before and it seems really easy, but they move so slow and the most eaten (in 10 minutes) was 20. But most people ate less then 10. Then there was a random free concert with rappers, who only sang about hot dogs...even though they were really thugged out. Then we just kind of hung out in Seoul. People watched, wandered around. Ended up in a chimek (chicken & beer...beer in Korean is Mekju...hence the Chi [chicken] Mek [mekju]) place. We were the only ones in there and right after we ordered, a group of Koreans who had just come back from hiking came in. And they were loud and roudy but they kept apologizing to us and trying to talk to us...even though we didn't understand what they were saying at all. It was really funny! There were about 10 of them and I'm pretty sure they were already drunk when they got there. But not speaking English all they kept saying over and over was "Thank you! Sorry! Thank you!!" We weren't quite sure what they were thanking us for...since it wasn't our bar...but it was entertaining!

So all around..I feel better, though I don't want to teach in the A.M.! I want to sleep. And I'm really excited to sleep in my own bed...this will be the first time since Thursday night. :/

Oopsies

Accidentally slept in...(alarm clock fail)...for the 2nd time since I've been here (keeping in mind that I've really only been here a month...yep, calculate that). The first time, I slept until 6:32am, when I have a 6:30 class and managed to make it there by 6:40. All was fine (except that I didn't get paid for the next hour that I actually did work). This time...I awoke from a blissful slumber at 6:45am. Figuring there's no way I'd make it to class in time (clearly...as I've already missed 15 minutes!) annnnd factoring in that I won't be getting paid for this hour...when they called they told me my class could go to Todd's class (which they called at about 6:50am..and you would think that my class would have complained earlier so that they didn't miss half of their class. I can only hope they were speaking in English!) And now I have to figure out some way to make it up to my students...I feel bad about missing work (company wise) but my students are the ones that I care about. And await the reaming I'm going to get from the cuzzo.

So now I'm debating...should I go back to bed? I don't have to go to class...and my next class isn't until 9am. Dilemma. I'd like to go back to sleep (even though I went to bed at 1030pm like a grandma last night and have gotten my full 8 hours worth), but I'm also a little on edge having missed work.

Bahh! Hate morning classes.

*EDIT*
Today, I'm irrationally angry. Yes..this does happen once a month every month..but even still. I'd like a moment to wallow in my anger before other emotions start to surface. I hate men...I hate that they seem to be completely incapable of simply loving me...not my boobs..just me. I hate that weird old Korean men stare at me as I do ANYTHING no matter what I'm wearing/look like. I hate the predicament I have put myself into..which is completely my own fault for being so silly...a predicament that I will not voice here in this public space. I hate the fact that my family is linked to everything I do here...nothing is private. And I hate the not knowing, the being completely and utterly confused about all that's said and done on a constant basis. And I hate that my buddy isn't here. And when I talk to my mom all she talks about is God or money. Where did our actual relationship go?

And today, on a funnier note, I reburnt my tongue. Last week, I ate thuck mandu guk (kind of a ricecake/potsticker soup), and I burnt my tongue on the first bite. It's been very slowly healing ever since then. So today...being the stupid girl that I am, go back to the scene of the crime, order the same thing and then reburn my poor mistreated tongue.

Skinny Koreans

Reasons why Koreans are skinny:

Chopsticks. It's impossible to shovel food down the ol' hatchet when you have to work with chopsticks. And the spoon/chopstick combo makes it worse. You have to switch from chopsticks to spoon depending on what you're eating. So if I'm eating rice with meat or something, I have to scoop the rice with my spoon and then switch to chopsticks to grab some meat (or vice versa).

They eat everything RIDICULOUSLY hot. It's not only spicy but it's temperature hot to the point where you can't eat it! I've burnt my tongue at least once a week since arriving in this country.

All the shoving and Ajumah Elbowing gives them a strong upper body.

Hiking...in their super unnecessary hiking gear/outfits.

Being too concerned about what people around them are thinking to eat.

Legit.

ReCap

Soooo...I'm a little disappointed with the events that transpired on my birthday. It was quite anticlimactic. I had to teach in the morning, then treated myself to a mani/pedi. Then I went (quite randomly) to my friend Jeanie's babies first birthday party. It was CRAZY...straight up looked like a wedding reception...and a NICE wedding reception..the kind only rich people can afford! So that was fun to see.

Next I went to Seoul with my cousins, Amy, Myungun, and Hayon. We had dinner. Then we wandered around looking for somewhere to drink finally settling on a chicken and beer place (please keep in mind that I had eaten buffet at the baby party then dinner..THEN chicken, and beer to boot...). We got a giant pitcher that got me nice and toasty. Then Amy and Myungun headed home and Hayon and I went looking for this random party. We wandered and wandered and finally I got a hold of Dan who told us where to go.

The party was ok. It was in a basement bar but it had a very house party feel to it. We didn't know anyone so it was a little awkward...and we kind of ended up being wall flowers. Met a few people, but nothing extravagant.

THEN Dan calls (because I was supposed to meet up with him and Matt at the party) and says they're not going to go..they're going to Hongdae, which is like on the far other side of Seoul. So I talked to the cousin and she kind of wanted to go home. I didn't trust myself (or the boys) enough to actually go to Hongdae by myself at night to try to find them, while I'm drunk and there's no transportation (other than taxi) to get back to Suwon. So we ended up just going home.

I was a little sad about it. None of my friends came to see me...though a lot of people called to wish me a happy birthday, which was nice. And apparently there was a parade in Suwon that I somehow missed. And a huge fireworks show on the Han river in Seoul that I had no idea about! I wish I had known about those things! They would have made for great birthday fun!

And so today, my friend Veanessa is taking me out to dinner (hopefully) to make up for missing last night. It'll be good to see her, so that should be fun! And Dan/possibly Matt said they were coming to Suwon Si for the day, but I haven't heard from them, so who knows!

This morning at about 8am, E called...annnnd I had no idea who he was. The number (thanks to Skype) was blocked or absent or whatever, so I answered. (And, just to make this make sense, I get these random phone calls sometimes where this Korean person will be on the other line and the call goes something like this: Me: "Hello?" "Hellloooo." "Hello?" "Helllllooooooo." "Nuguayo? (Who is this?)" "Hellllloooooooo." Me:click.) So I answered with the obviously just woken up "hella?" "Hello!" ...awkward silence (because I thought it might be that weird person...) "JENNI?!?" "Yeh (korean for yes)." "Hey!!" "Who is this?" ...awkward pause... "How was your birthday?? Did I wake you??" Please note how he didn't answer the question. And it took me a few seconds of talking to him to realize who was on the other line.

October 8, 2011

Oh hey, did you know?

IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!!!!

It's kind of weird being 25. I feel like I should be an adult...buut I'm not..like at all in any way shape or form. So my head is yelling at me, "YOU"RE SOOOOO OLD!!! And what do you have to show for it??" But my heart is saying, "You so young, woman. Party like it's 1999." So I've got some mixed feelings about life right now!

But it doesn't matter because, oh wait...

IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!!!!

And I'm about to go to some random Korean babies first birthday party. It's my friend Jeanie's niece, and she invited me since I'll have a bit of extra time so I can grab some food and see how Korean's babies party it up! :)

And how selfish am I. I ran into a girl a met a few weeks ago and invited her to the party tonight and then she told me it's her friend's birthday too, and so now I'm looking for a way for them not to go hahaha. How dare she try to steal my THUUUUNDER?? Me=Selfish. I'm the only one allowed to be born on this day...ever.

Funny People these People

Observation #...Uh, what number am I on?

Anyway, Korean's love to spit. It's disgusting.

New favorite hobby: Staring at Korean's who are staring at me to see who will break first. I always win. I have eyes too, sucka <--I hang out with dudes too much.

In class today my students were talking about Steve Jobs, may he rest in peace, and how he lived a "short thick life" and that's what Korean's want...a "short thick life, not a long thin one." And the man who said this then points only to the men in the class and says "they understand." Uhh..are we still talking about lifespans???

And it's kind of pissing me off how people tell me how young I am...it's not exactly a compliment when they say it. But it especially makes me upset when girls that are in my age bracket say it and then become visibly upset because they "are not young"....You're 2 years older than me...if you're not young, then I'm not young! It's a smidge rude.

But hey guess what?

TOMORROW'S MY BIRSADAAAAY! :) (on this side of the world...on the other side I still have 2 days hahaha)

*EDIT*
and I may have found myself a Korean boyfriend! I walked into the convenient store behind my apartment (called Fine People...just in case you needed a laugh) and the guy asks me "Where's your boyfriend?" Talking about E, because the last time I went in there I went with E and he bought two boxes of the Korean love candy (for himself...). "Not boyfriend, just friends." "Oh, ok. Teacher teacher. Ok." Long pause while I decide what to buy. When I go up to the register "I'll be your boyfriend." "Ok! Tomorrow's my birthday!" (Yes I'm one of those people that tells EVERYONE I come in contact with that it's my birthday!) "Happy birthday! You eat cake?" "yes." "Tomorrow come see me!" "Ok!" Who knew it was that easy to get a boyfriend?? I've been way over complicating the process! Unfortunately, as flattered as I was (even though I was looking HOT! :D ) he's not that attractive...and would only want to practice his Engrish. Super nice guy though!

Ajumahs

Every day Ajumah's piss me off more and more.

There's this thing we westerners call the "Ajumah elbow." It's a constant source of laughter and a way of life for Ajumahs. They stick out their elbow and shove their way through any situation (being the first one on or off the elevator or bus is the most common use for the Ajumah Elbow). It's kind of like them saying, "you're in no way good enough for me to actually touch or talk to, so I'm going to shove my elbow at you so you know you're in my way." However...they do it at the most peculiar times. For example today, I was waiting for my coffee, quietly standing off to one side of the bakery (PARIS BAGUETTE!!!<--that's for you Minerva :D )...with no one standing around me, no objects next to me blocking the pathway, and this ajumah comes out of nowhere, SLAMS her elbow into me so I actually have to shift or fall, and the pushes past me. I swear you'd think I was the size of an elephant the way these ajumah's need to shove to get around me! I actually frowned at her as she was walking by/in front of me, and the barista handed me my coffee at the same time and saw my face hahaha. It's super rude to not respect your elders even if they are crazy old ladies...so the barista was 100% offended. But I'm foreign, everything I do is offensive! :D But then the Ajumah kept pointing at my coffee, and I thought she was going to try to steal it. Uh-uh. No way Jose. I understand it's cultural to be polite to your elders, but ain't no one touchin' my coffee. ;)

"YOU SEE THESE ROCKS?!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvuUiXF-HMs
This happened a few weeks ago, and it's a TERRIBLE thing that made all of us teachers look bad..but I can't help but laugh.

I love to Hate and Hate to love the Yoga

I tried (against my better judgment) the Hot Yoga today. I skipped yoga yesterday because my stomach is all upset (drinking until 230 in the a.m. remember?). So I went today and I was kind of excited about it, I've wanted to try it for a while now...annnnnnd never again.

Firstly, it wasn't really hot. My yoga place always warms the room for every class anyway, so it wasn't any hotter than it normally is..which is strange.

Second, we didn't do any sort of flow yoga, which I prefer. It was just kind of hopping from pose to pose and I don't feel like I got very worked out...which is the main reason I go to yoga.

And lastly...I thought yoga was supposed to be calming, soothing, relaxing. The instructor (a different one than the usual, whom I like) was literally yelling. And then she'd clap at us as if we were in an aerobics class. It was like angry Korean yelling too, just completely unnecessary. I was literally counting the minutes for the class to be over. And then, when we were in relaxed poses (like on our stomachs, or backs) she'd come over to me and push me into the ground, trying to make me lie flatter...problem is...I'm round. I'm not like the itty bitty Korean women who disappear when they lie on the ground. My curves prevent me from being completely flat (ESPECIALLY when we lie on our tummies..uh, hello, have you seen my body???) So that was kind of annoying to me. I generally don't mind when they come over and push me further in a POSE but not when we're in relaxation. And sometimes they push me a little too far in poses...it's actually kind of dangerous. I could pull or break something. I was taught in Yoga (as in life) to know your body, know your limits, know when to push and when to pull back. And apparently they don't have that knowledge/understanding/philosophy here!

But hey guess what?
It's my birthday on Saturdaaaaay!!!

P.S.
I'm sooooo ooosososososooooo hungry but I'm being super lazy and don't want to leave my apartment..but I have no idea how to order food for delivery and it makes me AMAZINGLY sad!! And I have to find a new restaurant to eat at because I'm kind of nervous to just keep going to the same one, though I know they love my business! (and then make fun of me while I'm still sitting in the restaurant because they know I can't understand them!) Bahh..oh well. I'm a foreigner, it's all good.


*EDIT*
I'm getting ready to take a shower..and overshare, but I tend to remove the clothing in the apartment not the bathroom because the bathroom is too small. I look out my window, which is partially open to give Wanda some sunshine and Vitamin D and I see a dangling rope. So, in my underwear, I walk to the window to see what the heck is happening. And there's a man propelling down past my window...and then there are 2 men (painters I guess). Whoooopsies. I quickly closed the curtains and walked quickly to the other side of the apartment, into the bathroom and closed the door.

*EDITedit*
Having hilarious drunk men hitting on me and E (mainly, usually just E getting hit on by hilarious drunk men and me trying not to laugh) = funny. Having drunk men hit on me inside my apartment building as I'm trying to get on the elevator = no bueno, signore.

So...here's the story morning glory. I was walking home...got harassed by that cult...A-FREAKIN-GAIN! I ignored them. I said "no" when they approached and just kept walking. The lady walked next to me and talked but I ignored her and just turned into my apartment building and it worked (even though she still followed me halfway down the street yammering on in Korean). I get to my elevator, but the door to my elevator is closed, so I have to walk into the building to the main elevators. And as I'm standing there waiting, this weird little short guy (who looked drunk but might have honestly just been ugly...) comes in, looks me up and down..twice...and then says "hello." I kind of just glance at him and am so pissed off already by the cult harassing me AGAIN that I might have decked him if other people weren't around. I try to ignore him, but then he comes and stands next to me...checking out the goods. And then starts talking...apparently he thought I was Pakistan...which I'm not sure is a good thing or a bad thing. Like I don't know if he was saying "oooh you're a super hot pakistan" or if he was saying "f'ing pakistan" you know? Part of me thinks he started out saying the super hot, I'm totally drunk and would like to buy you for the evening and then when I ignored him, he switched directions. But I was so nervous he would follow me into the elevator...luckily he didn't. And I honestly would have punched him in his weird little head which was like right at shoulder height for me (perfect punching size) had he tried to touch me in anyway.

Korea's making me angrier...or stronger... o_0

Clarification?

Sooo I'm ridiculously sad. A month seems like FOREEVVEERRR. And honestly, who's going to take care of me on my birthday? That's what makes me really sad. I don't have any close close friends that I can trust enough. And again, that makes me sad that my BFF's won't be here to help me celebrate this momentous year!

I'm sad because E's gone for the month, of course, I'll for sure miss him...but I'm more sad because without E, I'm suriously alone for the first time. And it sort of just hit me like a sack o' potatoes...I'm on my own. He's been like my rock (how corny does THAT sound?!?) for the past month and so everything seemed ok, and now I have to learn to just stand on my own two feet again and it's seriously scary.

I think it wouldn't be so bad if my other co worker was alright, but he really keeps to himself and I'm just kind of stuck with a bunch of gossipy Korean women...who think I'm a sluthobag.

And from the last post, I'm confused because of a random meltdown I had on Sunday night/Monday morning. I had yet another random panic attack. We were hanging out at the bar and everything was fine, I made a new friend (who kept inviting me back to his house...so I'm not sure if we're actually friends, or if he's just hoping to get laid...I guess we'll find out, eh?), and things were fine. And theeeen all of a sudden, I just couldn't breathe. And I was trying to play it cool, I'd take a minute to walk away from the group to suck in as much air as possible. We ended up going back to my new friends house anyway (the whole group of us, not just me and him...). And I just kind of suffered through it. But E noticed (I think it was hard not to notice haha). And so when we left (to which prompted several confused text messages from my new friend), E was super nice and like kept trying to comfort me, which then made me start crying like an idiot so then I just sounded like a stupid wheezing child in the middle of the street. (I'm not sure how much of this he remembers, I'm hoping none of it...as he was delightfully drunk) So we stood on the street in front of Dan's house, just E and I while I cried/tried to find my breath (which was made all the more difficult by the crying/talking/joking/laughing). I just don't like it...I understand that it has to be linked to some crazy emotion, but the fact that it comes out of nowhere is ridiculous...and 100% confusing.

And the kind of heart broken is caused by all of the above.

But on the bright side, I got some free eggs out and possibly some spaghetti sauce if I want it...and essentially a second apartment if I want it (for any guests that may want to come hang out).

ANNNNND

This is Wanda. I'm babysitting her/hoping to revive her and not completely and accidentally murder her.

*EDIT*
Make that 5 times I've now been stopped by the God the Mother cult. Today, twice. The first one I said no to and just kept walking. The second time, I said no and kept walking and this very enthusiastic girl followed me..."No thank you, no thank you, no thank you..." and she just kept talking. Then she followed me INTO MY APARTMENT BUILDING. So I had no choice but to stop walking or she would have followed me up to my room and I DO NOT WANT THEM TO KNOW WHERE I LIVE. Then she starts CRYING about how she wants me to go to heaven with her. "Don't you want to go to heaven??" O.M.G. So she forces me to take a pamphlet and her phone number and then hugs me...uh, hello personal space. And is still talking as I scoot into the elevator, praying she doesn't follow me into the elevator. Geeeeeeeez LOUISE. AND I TOLD HER SOMEONE HAD ALREADY TALKED TO ME ABOUT IT. I'm going to just start yelling at these people if they approach me again. "YOU SEE THESE ROCKS?!?"

Yooouch

Confused. Sad. Kind of heart broken. Will probably take out my emotions in some wildly unhealthy manner. Wish me luck.

*EDIT*
First unhealthy manner: eating. Went to my favorite restaurant where they know exactly what I want. I also ordered some mandoo too (potstickers) and the lady was super nice and helped me to pronounce it...goon mandoo :) But ate waaay to much, even though for the first time EVER I didn't exactly have a desire to eat.

2. Wasting money on ridiculously wonderful Vera Wang perfume.


Sidenote: Another silly thing about Korea. It's popular for couples to wear matching sweatshirts. And if they match all the way down to their toes it means they're REALLY in love.

SIDEsidenote: I've been harrassed by this crazy cult about three times now. The first and third time, I thought that they needed help with something and then realized that no..it's the God the Mother cult. The first time, they were really aggressive and followed me down the street even though I kept telling them no thank you, I don't speak Korean, I'm busy, I have to meet my friend..etc. So I eventually just stopped and listened...and pretended not to understand what they were saying. They then asked me if I went to church, and I told them yes, I go to that church. And their response (in Korean): "Well, that church isn't feeding you, it's not giving you the necessary life waters that you need because God the Mother isn't in that church." Uhh...thanks. And then they kept trying to get me to follow them, to go to their church because they had English speaking people to talk to me there. And I tried to slowly back away..and when that didn't work, I just stood there and stared at them awkwardly..until they finally gave up. The second group to stop me was literally 10 minutes later, to which I put my hand up and said "no." And kept walking. Then it happened again today! These young girls stopped me and sounded like they needed help with something. And then so I was trying to listen to what they were saying (they were saying numbers at first...so I thought they were asking for directions to an address). And then, one finally says in Engrish, "mmm...Modder God-euh" (translation: "Mother God") And then I got it and smiled and said "No." And walked away. Crazy cults!

*EDITedit*
Unhealthy numero tres: driiiiiinking and staying up until 2:30 in the a.m. with E when I have to get up and go to work at 6:30. You wanna talk about a yoooouch. Feelin it. Was late to work...only 3 minutes. Apologized to my students, told them I was sick (to which one student said "You habbah too much fun!" Which is true.) And then they told me to go to the hospital...apparently Korean's go to the hospital for every minuscule thing here. Just ate a kimbap roll that I may see again in about 10 minutes or so. It is NOT going to be a good morning/first day of a new month. And honestly it's going to be a super amazingly sad/boring month without E at work. The other guy is soooo nice, but it's difficult to have conversations with him. And even if we do have conversations, I can guarantee he won't make me laugh.

HOOOOW DO I LIVE WITHOUT YOU? I want to knoooooooow. How do I breathe without you, if you ever goOooOoo.<---that's a Leanne Rhimes song, by the way. ;) (actually I think it's Leanne Rhimes, but I could be way mistaken! Correct me if I'm wrong!)

Tolerance

4 bottles of Maehwasu (DELICIOUS, fruity Korean girl liquor), 1 bottle of Mackoli (rice wine) between 2 people. Equaling 2.5 bottles EACH.

For those of you that know me well..you know that I'm a lightweight...and that 2 beers usually gets me to a happy place.

So therefore...I was plastered, and kind of falling asleep at the table. While my new itty bitty tiny adorable Korean friend was 100% sober. How does that work?? Dang these crazy Korean's and their ridiculously high tolerance.

We also accidentally stumbled into a booking club. A booking club is essentially a legal form of prostitution almost. It's where men and women will go..the men will see a woman/women he likes and will tell the booky who will then go and fetch the girl/girls, and then the girl/girls are essentially bought for the evening. The women don't get paid, but everything is paid for by the men (food, drinks, etc). Sex is optional, so it's kind of like matchmaking house...And foreigners are hot commodities...ESPECIALLY ones shaped like me (i.e. big chest, which is a rare sight here in Korea). We thought it was just like a bar and we walked in and sat down and I think my Korean friend realized it (especially when all the men turned and looked and started whispering to each other "Waygookin!" which means "Foreigner!") and she made some excuse about the music being too loud so we booked it out of there. Hilarious nonsense.

And this is super gross, but I've got those nasty little flies that come with super gross trash! Because I have to BUY special trash bags here and they're ridiculously expensive..like $1 per bag, so I was trying to wait to take the trash out until it was REALLY full. Bahh, disgusting.

NapTime

We're on the bus, going to the gym, holding hands as any normal couple would. I start to doze off, but I'm holding the baby. Not my baby, of course, the one we're babysitting. When we get off the bus, I'm pushing the stroller, holding his hand. He asks what I want to do at the gym today. I tell him, the usual, just run probably, since I already went to Yoga. We have to walk down a grassy hill. He comments on how the grass has grown a lot. The stroller slips from my hands and begins to roll down the hill. I gently point it out to him, but he doesn't notice. I'm not panicked, fear doesn't grip me, but I calmly watch as the stroller continues to roll until it courses into the lake at the bottom of the hill. There it begins to sink, slowly.

We sit down in the grass that has indeed grown exceptionally wild. As he puts his arm around me, we notice a couple that just got married, still in their wedding attire floating by in a paddle boat. I wish I had my camera.


...ANALYZE THAT DREAM, will ya???

Best Job Ever

My job has proved to be a smidge challenging at times, but I'm slowly realizing that the perks of my job far out weigh the setbacks. Last night, my student at the beginning of class said, "How many students do you think will come to class today? I think 3." And I said, "I think 2." (Just for the record, I was right). And then he says, "Ok, if no one comes, we'll go get chicken and beer. And Mr. Eddie can come too." But then, another student comes in. So we tell him the bet. And I told my first student, "Well, I win! You owe me chicken and beer now." His response. "Ok, let's go." So we went :)

We had class at this place called the Frypan, it's a little bit western style...with fried chicken, chips and whatnot. It was me and the older man, and the young guy who I find to be quite attractive. And then Mr.Eddie joined us..and then his girlfriend joined us. My student was SOOO excited to see "Mr. Eddie." I had texted him to see if he could come, and he said he was coming out. Literally two minutes later, my student says, "Where is Mr. Eddie??" Looking out the window anxiously (this is like a 60 year old man mind you). And the my student calls "Mr. Eddie." "Mr. Eddie! Where are you? You come here now???" Goodness, it was honestly adorable.

They (the Korean people) ordered for me/us and they ordered the big beer. I was kind of hoping (since I was still technically working...) that I could just have like 1 small beer, but nope. Not at all. And then, when I wasn't paying attention, my older gentleman student orders a SECOND round of big beers. ha. I'm pretty sure Eddie's girlfriend thinks I'm not lady like at all...she sipped her one beer and then couldn't finish it...which is just silliness. BUT...when other people are paying for you, you have to eat/drink. It's cultural. :)

So, moral of the story, BEST JOB EVER.

In the mornings my students take me to coffee/buy coffee for me and bring it to class, and now beer in the evening :) I dig it.

Gahh Really Friends?

Today I stopped into Starbucks to get some coffee because I've been really tired today. I had a bit of a nightmare last night and didn't sleep well. I ran into a coworker and this is how the conversation went.

Coworker, who we'll call A: "So, I heard something's happening with you and Eddie."

Me: "Oh my gosh. Noooooo. Nothing is happening. He has a girlfriend."

A: "Oh really? Your cousin said you two are getting really close."

Me: "No. Just friends. He has a girlfriend."

A: "Oh. I heard his girlfriend isn't that great though. Everyone at work is talking about this."

Me: "Ughgalkjpoij! Seriously? No she's really nice. GAHHHH!!!!"<---literally said that in Starbucks. "We're just friends!"

A: "Well...the best love blossoms from friendship."

WHAT IS THAT?!?

Sooooo...not only am I the trampy American cousin...but I'm also the supertramphobagsluttastichomewrecker American teacher at work. The other women (Korean) teachers seriously don't like me...which is awesome. And the suck part is that because it's my own blood that's saying these things, people absolutely believe it to be true. Nonsense...(to a certain degree)...just nonsense.

Gossipgossipgossipgossipgossip.

Quarter Century Sadness

I'm extremely sad that my BFF's aren't able to celebrate my birthday with me...and my bestest buddy here is going home for the month. It honestly makes me not want to do anything at all. I'm going to have to celebrate with a bunch of people I don't know..and what if no one cares enough to celebrate with me?? It's such a big year, too. I mean I guess being in Korea is kind of a big event in my life in general, but I want to celebrate! I want to be surrounded by people I love.

So friends..I'm going to need you to spend all of your savings and come to Korea in two weeks. K, thanks.

What Personal Space?

Ajumah: Middle aged-old Korean lady who has no shame whatsoever in any given situation.

Example 1: I was coming home from Hongdae (Hongik University area...SOOO many foreigners) this morning on the train. Two ajumah's are standing and talking, and the seat next to me opens up and one ajume sits down. They're a little bit older, so I offer the other ajume my seat, being the polite, considerate young lady that I am. They argue with me about it for a minute, but I convince the ajumah to sit down. She says "Sorry and thank you." So now, I'm standing in front of them on the train. The ajumah who took my seat, then reaches out, grabs the flap of the zipper on my jeans (yes...in my crotch area...) opens the flap, feels the zipper, then pats the flap closed. Yes. That happened on the morning train. Did I get molested??? I'm trying to decide if A.) She thought my zipper was open and was checking it for me. B.) The zipper on my jeans was unique and she wanted to take a closer look. or C.) My jeans were kind of baggy, so maybe she thought I had a male appendage because the zipper lumped in such a way that could suggest so.

Example 2: I'm standing on the train this morning, it's full and there are no seats. There's a salesman selling these weird socks. An ajumah buys one box of the weird socks. The seat next to her opens up, and I begin to shift (not actually because I was going to sit next to her, I was perfectly fine with standing at this point). So she puts her one box of socks on the open seat, looks square at me and then looks away, to be sure I know, I'm not allowed to sit there. Then, the train comes to another stop, Korean people enter the train, and when she sees a KOREAN person making a move toward the empty seat, she moves her box of socks. Rude.

Example 3: I was standing in front of the doors on the train this morning, leaning on the bar on the left side of the door. NOT in the middle...on the side, holding onto the railing. The door comes to a stop, and ajumah's get on the train. Instead of going around me, to the right, an ajumah rams straight into my arm and tries to break my grip on the railing. Apparently I'm the size of an elephant that takes up the entire doorway now. For this one, I stood my own, did not let go of the railing and did not move. She eventually realized she could walk around the other way and that my body is not a mile long.

And

Ajushee: Middle aged to old Korean man who practices some kind of creepy inappropriate behavior that is somehow acceptable in Eastern culture.

Example 1: On the train last night, there was a little girl with her mom. Her mom was standing and she was sitting in a row of empty seats. She had to be about 2 years old. An [random] ajushee comes and sits next to her, puts his arm around her shoulders, and rubs her arm, drawing her closer to himself at the same time. All the while he's telling her, "I'm your daddy." And she's saying, "You're not my daddy." How is this not child molestation???

Example 2: EVERY DAY walking down the street, ajushee's make a it a blatant point to stare at my chest. They apparently don't believe in the courtesy of subtlety.

Holy FartBucket

Today started out on an excellent note when I walked into class to find the two women in my class crying and yelling at each other.

The one woman was complaining that the other talks too much (and not well enough, which is the most ironic thing I've ever heard in my 25 years of life). And then I got there and the lady asked me "Do you think I talk too much?" I want to be honest (but have no idea how to handle conflict) so I said "Yes..sometimes you have a lot to say." BUT (and I had been hoping that that lady would stay after class for a while, she sometimes does and I really like talking with her, she's cool people), I teach ADULTS. Not children. So the first lady (who then KEPT yelling at the second lady about how rude and inconsiderate she is) wants me to regulate the time, so each person can speak for 10 minutes and we can just kind of go around the table...uhm, yeah, you're not children. It's a conversation class. We're there to converse. If you don't know how to converse, that's kind of your own issue. Am I right??

So THEN the lady turns the tables and starts yelling at me about how the material is too difficult and that "they" are not American and I'm American, so it's easy for me. Uh...pardon the language, but no shit Sherlock. The problem is that, she's the ONLY one in that class that struggles with the material I bring. She wants me to baby her and go LINE BY LINE through the articles, but the rest of the class doesn't want that (because they understand the material)...so essentially, the lady who was complaining was the one who's causing the problem in class.

I presented the problem to the office (i.e. my cousin), hoping they could handle the situation, because I just don't know what to do (other than to tell that lady, "Hey you need to go to another class because this one is too difficult for you...") and the office told me I need to handle it. Bahh. Ok? How do I handle it??? WTF do I do with that? They want to kill each other!

And there's normally 2 guys in class, but today there was only 1. And that poor guy seemed just as uncomfortable as I was.

GAHH!!! Geez louise. On a Friday too.

Would it be considered favoritism if I called the student who got yelled at an apologize?

And the first lady (who complained) apologized for complaining at the end of class, and I, being the people pleaser that I am, normally would have consoled her like, "Oh it's ok, you just want to learn and have your opportunity." But I was so pissed at her that I said nothing and she felt my anger haha. FEEL MY WRATH. Turrible.

*EDIT*

I didn't think my day could actually get worse. Uhh yeah.

I went to the gym today..and actually I was really proud of myself, I got my time back up and it felt amazing! I was literally smiling while I ran like a nerd.

Then, after the gym, I jumped on the bus and I don't know what happened, maybe I was on the wrong bus, but nothing looked familiar. It didn't go anywhere near my house. So I kept riding, hoping maybe it would loop back around, and it didn't. I rode until the end of the line and apparently the driver was done for the evening, so he went to the bus parking lot annnnd told me I had to get off the bus. And he must have thought I was a ridiculous foreigner, just riding the bus for fun.

At first, I was ok. It was like an adventure! Then I realized I was going to be late for work. Then I started to panic because I had NO IDEA where I was!!!

So I jump off the bus, and hail a taxi. And tell the taxi driver to take me to the major train station near my house, Suwon Station. And I call my cousin who I work with to tell her the terrible news. She then talks to the taxi driver to tell him where to take me (to the office). She tells me that it should take 10 minutes from where I am. But..it took 40 because of traffic.

The entire drive...NO LIE...the driver would look at my chest...readjust his penis...and then keep driving. Every other minute or so for 40 minutes. And to make this an even more awkward situation...I was crying. Literally bawling my eyes out. What a rapist.

So we get to my office and I tell him to keep going to my apartment because I want to change..but he doesn't understand. So I tell him [in KOREAN] "keep going, over there" and he'd drive like 2 feet, "here?" he'd ask. "No over there!" 3 feet, "here?" "NOOO. OVER THEEEEEERRRREEEE" and then some random korean nonesense that I couldn't understand. Finally, we get to my apartment and I hop out and run..still crying. I'm an hour late at this point. Get to my apartment, have a panic attack, straight up AGAIN. Change and then run to work. My students were good today though, thankfully. There were only 2 of them which I think made the atmosphere much better.

And then, in my last class I was a little flattered because my brand new super hot korean man student (one of 2 korean men that I've found to be attractive...in ALL of Korea, thus far...lucky me he's in my class!) told me I'm a good teacher because I make the students feel comfortable. So that made me feel a little better. (Kind of like E telling me I'm the coolest person he's ever worked with in Korea this morning after my stupid class craziness.)

However, I'm still kind of a disaster after today's nonsense...and am definitely drinking Soju from the bottle with a beer chaser...alone in my apartment. ALCOHOLIC? And still crying..because I'm a girl and I cry about stupid things from time to time.

SuYoga

My yoga instructor (the one that's the size of my left leg), has decided that my body is capable of doing things that it just...can't. She'll call out a pose..and then come over to me to try to push my body further into it (so it's "correct"), and she'll push and push...and to no avail. My body just simply doesn't bend like that...yet(?). And she's really nice but she keeps telling me how difficult it is, I wonder if she's hinting at the fact that I should try another class...maybe the beginner level? I'm enjoying the challenge though. I have to physically stop myself from being self conscious though. When it's just me, I feel ok. But then I see these itsy bitsy middle school sized Korean women walk in and I start to feel like a giant. I mean, I'm short, I think, and I TOWER over these ladies! And I'm a smidge of a chubbawub...so I literally feel like YogiGodzilla.

And my body hurts...a lot. I've been to the gym every day this week as well. My plan is for the first like 2-3 weeks (maybe until my birthday), to just kind of beat my body into submission. It's going to hurt like hell, but it'll be worth it in the end...hopefully. Or I'll pass out somewhere along the way.

And I have to have a constant awareness about my posture during this time period. I figure while I'm beating my body into submission, that will be another thing to make it learn. GOOD POSTURE GOOD POSTURE GOOD POSTURE!! It's so natural for me to slouch because my chest is so large and I've always been a little embarrassed about it, but I've recently come to terms with it. My chest is large. SO WHAT? The weird old korean men are going to stare at the ladies whether I'm slouched or have the girls up and out where they should be so...I might as well, right? And they're beautiful. Painful (for me) but beautiful. :) I should wear them proudly!

Health Club

I joined a gym yesterday! It was quite possibly the easiest thing I've ever done...honestly probably because I don't speak Korean and the front desk lady couldn't be bothered to try and translate. So, I didn't have to do anything except put my name and phone number on a piece of paper and pay the fee. Amazing. In the States, they give you the run around, so maybe not speaking the language has it's advantages.

This gym is funny though. It's a little far from my house, which was kind of sad. My cousin suggested one that is right across the street, but when she called them, they told her they're shutting down next month. So...sad. This one is Eddie's gym (which honestly makes me wonder if maybe the gym across the street isn't shutting down and this is just a ploy to make us spend more time together, since she's already declared that he and I being together would make her happy. haha!)

But they have those super old fashioned machines where you put the big rubber band around your waist and then it jiggles you. HILARIOUS. I wanted to take a picture sooooo badly. And they have a variety of other absolutely useless machines.

And the naked culture here is a little unnerving. I went into the locker room and the women are just chilling in the nude. I had to ask a question and the lady answered as if absolutely nothing was wrong..it's perfectly normal to talk to a complete stranger while standing in the buff. Uhhh...yeah. UNCOMFORTABLE!!

It felt soooo amazing to be at the gym though. I was very disappointed with my performance, I've lost a lot of stamina, but I'll get it back. I'll probably be there 5 or 6 days a week, which is also nice because it's going to fill in the empty time in my day. I'm also thinking about joining the yoga studio that's in the same building as my office and doing that on Tues/Thurs, because I have a longer gap. I get out of work at 11am and don't have to go back until 8pm on T/Th...so I could go to Yoga after work and THEN go to the gym. How healthy would I be?


*EDIT*
Joined the yoga. It's "ashtanga" yoga...I usually don't pay attention to what kind of yoga I'm doing, so the names are all kind of the same to me. But this one was RIDICULOUS. I only recognized maybe 1/4 of the poses...and the rest were some crazy acrobatic shiz for women without bones. And the instructor was super nice but she's literally the size of my leg. Sooooo....ouchy. She would come to help push me further into a pose and I tend to tremble...regardless of whether I'm in pain or not, it's just how my body responds to being pretzleized, and she would go "Oh..." and then like awkwardly walk away, lmao! Luckily though, it's getting cold, so I might check out a hot yoga. I'm super happy though that I'm able to do all of this. Working out makes me a happy camper.

AND...this may be premature, so I may be sad and have to take this one back later but....HE'SSTAYINGHE'SSTAYINGHE'SSTAYING!!! THAT makes me heppy.

Heartbreak Hotel

I miss you a little less everyday. But every so often, I will catch a glimpse of you and the physical pain in my heart of not being able to hold you in my arms and press my face against your neck is almost unbearable. I miss you most during the early hours of the day, when you would sneak quietly into my room and wait patiently for me to wake up. I would give anything for you to be here with me.

Hipity Hopity

Yesterday I went into to Seoul to meet some new people. It was really nice! We had a late lunch/early dinner at this american style breakfast place called Butterfingers. DELICIOUS. But they give you about the same amount of food as an IHOP's would..and in Korea normally people share. But since we're all fatty American's we got our own plates..and the Koreans, oh how they gawked.

Then we went to coffee.

Then SHOPPING!!! In MyungDong, which is like the big touristy, shopping area in Seoul. It's kind of comparable to 5th Ave, or Fashion Ave in NYC, but there are a lot of cheaper, more affordable things there. So I bought my BIRTHDAY DRESS!!! And a pair of shorts. I might buy another birthday dress, since I'm considering having 2 parties: a rooftop party on Friday night (that way I can invite a ton of people, like students and family members and whatnot) and then a Seoul party on my actual birthday on Saturday that will be for the good crazy new friends only...so I can be a partying fool without judgement!

After shopping, I met some new friends who were friends of the friend I met earlier. I know, confusing stuff. But we went out for drinks and started at a hauf, which is kind of like a restaurant, I think. Then we went DANCING. Amazing, amazing stuff this hiphop club. I went to a techno club a few weeks ago and it wasn't that great. But hiphop, I can do. However...Korean guys are seriously worse than American guys when it comes to the clubs. They have no filter for what's appropriate or not...or they assume because we're foreigners that we have no filter so they can just go for it. No bueno, por favor. But, it was a lot of fun and I'm really glad I went out (and went out with someone other than my coworker!)

I really do value his friendship and whatnot, but I'm glad to be making new friends. Having only one serious friend in the country is kind of tough on the nervous system...(I don't know what that means haha!) but it's not fun. Because unfortunately he has a life outside of me...so I can't hang out with him ALL the time, nor would I want to.

PS: I love when I eat too much and the Korean's stare. I had bibimbap (again...for the 3rd time in 24 hours...!) with mandoo (potstickers) and it was A LOT of food. And THEN I went next door the the Paris Baguette for coffee and ended up getting a pastry thing too...super disappointing though. It looked like a chocolate pastry..but it's not, it's beans. I mean, delicious sweet red beans, but beans none the less!

And SIDENOTE: I love that I can clean my entire apartment, floors, bathroom, kitchen and all in about 30 minutes. It's FAN-tastic.

Bad News Broke

I'm in serious trouble now. Today after class I decided to go get something to eat (actually my body decided for me..because I tend to get "the shakes" if I don't eat...low blood sugar issues...my dad actually thinks I may be diabetic. AWESOME.) So I went looking for this restaurant that left a brochure on my door (which is very common, it happens at least 4 times a week). But they had some food that I am familiar with and enjoy.

I found it.

That's where the bad news comes in.

They have bibimbap...which for those of you that don't know...bibimbap is my FAVORITE food in the entire world. It's rice with vegetables, an egg and sometimes meat on top, mixed with a spicy red pepper paste. I thought they only had bibim-nangmyun or ramien, which is the same thing except instead of rice it's noodles. But no. They have straight up bibimbap. <3<3<3<3<3!

They also have some of my other favorites like mandoo (potstickers), kimbap (kind of like Korean sushi, but no raw fish)...thuckboki...(spicy ricecakey things).

OH MY WORD. Those people will know my name by the end of the year...shoot, by the end of the month! And it's SOOO cheap. Bibimbap is only 5000won, which equals about $5. AMAZING. And kimbap is only $2!!

And it's next to the Paris Baguette..probably the best one I've been in so far. They have a huge variety at this one. CRAZINESS.

Nonesense.

Adding Insult to Injury

And on top of being so ronery, my body is now freaking out. I honestly think it's the pollution. First the sinus infection and now I have this cough that I can't get rid of. It's a bit of a surprise cough, too. So at any given moment it will burst forth (usually when I'm talking). And I had a bit of a panic attack last night...and mixed with the random bursts of coughing, I had a bit of trouble breathing. It's like the panic part would knock the breath right out of me..and then the coughing part would keep the breath out of me.

WHAT IS HAPPENING?!?

I guess I should invest in those super creepy face masks that asian people where. You know? The sars masks, they're quite popular here.

And! I feel awesome. Breakfast consists of a can of tuna and coffee. Breakfast of champions.

So Ronery.

Today was the first day that I felt homesick. It's starting to settle in...this is my life. I'm not on vacation. And I don't get to home for another 11 months. ELEVEN MONTHS!! My days are boring and I spend most of my time by myself. I don't like it. I don't even have Warren to justify my alone time spent holed up in my apartment. In situations such as these a manfriend would be handy...but story of my life, none available...well, plenty available, none that are available for me. I guess I need to just get used to the fact that I'll spend the majority of my time alone.

Accepted and moving on.

None

You know, you try to be honest in the world and put yourself out there and everything just falls apart. You...I guess I should say I, because I seem to be the only one this ever happens to...I call things as I see them and end up broken hearted. And I'm usually the only one that ends up hurt. WTF. I need to grow that elephant skin and learn to keep my giant mouth shut at all times.

Maybe I should just be a hermit. Who needs friends anyway?

SMH

Fun stuff that happened to me today:

Met a new friend (she's a friend of a friend) and has been here for a while. I <3 her already. She's awesome and it was SOOOOOOSOSOSOSOSOOOOOOO nice to get in some westerner girl time. I miss my girlfriends! We went to Gangnam (pronounced G-AHH-NG--N-AAHH-M not gang nam) in Seoul. It's cool, very urban, lots of shopping. I bought some skin food nail polish and got a free face mask sample! I had a choice of a lot of samples, but everything was like skin lightening products to make oneself whiter (Asian vampire, remember?)

The bus back was really difficult to find because there's a ton of construction, and I wasn't the only one confused. As I was standing in line waiting for the bus, a girl comes up to me and in Korean asks "Does bus 3000 stop here?" And she asked before looking at me, and I answered, "3000? Yes, it is here" in Korean. But theeeeen she looked at my face and realized I'm not Korean...even though I clearly just spoke Korean haha! And so she asked again...this time with hand motions. And once again I said, "Yes. It is here. It just came." And she said thank you, went back to her friend super embarrassed and they laughed about it. WEIRD.

Finally got on the bus, and rode quietly the entire way home. It's only about a 30 minute ride which is really nice. I always think it's going to take like an hour. Then, at my stop, I hop up and try to scan my card (because remember you have to scan when you get on and off the bus?)...and it didn't work. This happens to me a lot for some reason or another, so I waited, scanned again and then went to step off and fell, right on my butt in front of my own apartment. Super embarrassing..but since I'm used to my awkward clumsiness I kind of burst out laughing and moved on without making eye contact with anyone. Wonderful, wonderful stuff this being clumsy.

Fun fact: Korean's live in a Korean Drama (A.K.A soap opera). They go on these amazingly cheesy dates where they do something typical, dinner or dessert or drinks...and they'll share dinner or dessert or have one beer each and just sip it. Then they stare lovingly into each others eyes and let the entire world melt away. If they've been dating for a while, they'll reach across the table and hold hands. Everything is extremely PG. Today, while I was waiting for my bus, I watched a couple say goodbye as he put her on the bus (a city bus, meaning she lives like down the street...not far away at all) and she took a window seat and wiped away one lone tear as he waved at her from the street. With love in her eyes, she watched him standing alone on the corner as the bus pulled away. Seriously....Seriously?!? And they have this sort of behavior until they get married (which is usually a very short time period) and then they have miserable lives that they complain to their English teacher about...true story.

And Again I Say...

More fun facts about Korea:

You have to swipe your bus pass when you get on AND OFF the bus, or else they charge you for the entire route....around the entire city, possibly multiple times.

I have to turn my hot water on using a button on the wall, though I could just leave it on...which I think might cost a lot. Who knows though?

Korean people are super concerned with their appearance. They're constantly looking in the mirror and fixing their hair. And plastic surgery is REALLY cheap here.

Concerning aesthetics, Korean's want to be pale, middle schooler small and tall. Basically...like an asian vampire.

Eavesdropping is not considered rude...nor is staring...or both at the same time.

It's like the 1950s up in this heazy. No one sits next to me on the bus (except for slightly more westernized youngsters), even when the bus is packed. And if I'm standing next to someone, they'll lean away from me. HA! Diseased foreigners!!! Don't touch me or I'll catch your contagious foreignerness and will suddenly have a desire to be tan, will gain 72 lbs and be a healthy, normal sized human being and (for boys) will stop dressing like a girl!!

Pollution is some serious business--hence my sinus infection and my clogged nasal passages...Dust allergy gone SERIOUSLY wrong.

For the most part, Korean's don't believe in western medicine. Soooo, when I went to the family mart (convenience store) to get something for this sinus infection (which may also be a cold...but I'm leaning toward sinus infection) there was NOTHING. So I asked the lady (which was a super awkward conversation that went something like

In Korean:"What are you looking for?"
In English: "Uhh...Tylenol? or Advil?"
Korean: "What??"
English: "uhhh..TY--Len---All...mmmmm...aspirin?"
Korean: "Ohhhh, tydenoool. Does your head hurt?" (she says pointing to her head).
English: "Kind of..." Me Korean: "a little." Me English: "More my nose is stuffed" (I say pointing to my nose, making a face and squeezing my hands together in a ball in front of my face to signify stuffed).
Korean: "Oh. We have this" pointing to a weird little bottle of unknown juice in a heated cabinet. Korean: "It's for your body." The lady in English "BoOOODDDYYY" pointing up and down at her body.

Even more awkward was the mini shop in my apartment building with an old man.
Korean: "What are you looking for?"
Me, English: "mmm...uhh...cold medicine?"
Korean: "What?"
English: "Cooolllddd Me-De-SIN"
He hands me a piece of paper and pen, Korean: "Could you write it?"
After writing "cold medicine" which clearly can't read AT ALL...I begin with the charades. I point to my nose and squeeze my hands into a ball, making a face, I say "stuffed." Then, "you know...mmm...Achoo? Achoo!" then..."uhh..cough?cough!"
Korean: "gobbledygookmumbojumbo that I can't for the life of me understand..."
Me in Korean: "Where is that?"
Korean: "More yippityypapityyapperdoo that I can't make out." Then Korean in English: "Bank."

...uhhh, WTF?

So anyway, Korean's really believe in Eastern medicine with the herbs and acupuncture. Which I suppose is all right. But if I've got a headache, I really just want some aspirin!

Funny Funny Korean Men

Last night I had chicken and beer with my cousins and my cousin's ex-coworker (whose name I have no idea). And it went terribly wrong, but hilariously so. This guy, the ex-coworker didn't speak any English at all but kept trying to have conversation with me. And I am terrible at discerning whether I'm being hit on or not, but the translated version I would receive was stuff like "let's spend more time together" "let's hang out again" "Your cute" etc. However, my older cousin decided that was a bad idea and she was not a fan of that, so when he would ask me, she would answer for me and say something like "No, she doesn't like you." The guy was a little offended by that, but it was quite funny. At the end of the night, he tried to reach in for a hug and my cousin got so upset. And then tried to shake my hand "western style" and again, so upset. "No! Don't touch her. She doesn't like you!" hahaha I love that I've got my unni looking out for me. This guy though, when I first sat down and started eating, I had some trouble cutting my chicken. So he completely took my fork and tongs from me and starting cutting. Then he tried to feed me....awkward.

But, I think I probably will not have a Korean boyfriend here...ever. It's really hard to understand what these guys want. Western guys are a little easier to understand. I can tell when they want a relationship or when they just need some action. But these Korean guys, I think mainly because of the language barrier, it's very difficult to tell. And I think they've got all these ideas about western women from the media, and will expect western women to be a certain way. It's kind of like a fantasy. So I just don't think it would be a good idea for me. On top of that, Korean men (like Korean women) have a lot of expectations for their significant other, and I would fail to meet the majority of those expectations. Therefore...no thank you. Unnecessary drama.

My only friend here might be leaving. I'm not a fan of that...not at all. I have no idea how to even try to convince him to stay. At the same time though, I of course don't want him to be miserable and want him to make the right choices for his life. But I'd be very sad without him...especially so early in the game.

A New Day

Yesterday...oh yesterday.

I had to go to the immigration office (AGAIN, second day in a row) to file for my foreigner ID card. Wow. Worst experience ever. I had to wait, with Judy, for 4 hours. Holy Margarine. Not fun. We literally passed out in the waiting room...drool and all. Finally when they called our number, we presented my paperwork and the lady informed Judy that it was incorrect because the policy had changed like yesterday (which was also why we had to wait such a long time). Judy asked the lady why she wasn't informed or there wasn't any sort of signage about the policy change, and the ladies response was "That's not our responsibility to inform you. You should have checked online." Judy was pissed. She's done this several times with the other foreign teachers so she usually doesn't check the policy. I had to take a new picture, instead of the one I had already taken. The one I already took (and paid for) was ok, not great, but not terrible. I could live with it (and they had photoshopped my face to be smaller!). The picture on my foreinger ID card has my hair completely pulled back--which in turn makes my face look super round and I wasn't allowed to smile. Worst picture EVER.

This morning my co worker accidentally slept in and I had to add his morning class to mine, making my class a total of 11 people. This is CROWDED for my hagwan and it made me a little nervous. My class was pretty upset about it as well. My class is advanced and his is pre advanced, so I tried to cater to his class a little and my class was very offended by it. Literally, "We're not middle schoolers." Uhh..ok...you're also not the only ones in class (these are full grown adults too haha!) And we were reading an article outloud and my class read completely first...so we were sitting at a round table..well rectangle and my class was sitting 2 on each side closest to me and the rest of the class was behind them. The reading usually just goes around and my class, to ensure they were taken care of, instead of reading fully around the table, one lady cut off another from Eddie's class, and just started reading and so all of my class read and then Eddie's class got to jump in. Geez louise. Sharing is caring people. But I suppose they just want to make sure they get the education they're paying for!

This weekend..or rather this upcoming Monday is Chuseok, Korean Thanksgiving. So that should be pretty interesting!

More Today!

I FINALLY got through to my middle school students! We played a 2 learning games to teach them adverbs and verbs. So HOORRAAAYYY. They had fun and I think they actually learned something. So I'm very excited about that, now I just have to think of new games for EVERY class! Geeeeez louise.

I suddenly have 6 new students which is really strange...but ok. This place really keeps you on your toes when it comes to your schedule. I was told by my boss on Friday not to come to my 10am class because it was canceled and yet got a phone call today because I had a student at 10am. Uhr....what?

And my emotions about...this place...are up and down. And all I can hear in my head when I think about it is robot voice saying "Emotions? What are Emotions?" There's a head tilt in their somewhere too. But...so I really like this place. It exactly what I've always been attracted to, a good scene, fashionable clothes, busy streets, high heels. However, now that I'm a little older, I'm realizing that maybe what I'm attracted to isn't the best thing for me? Clearly what I want has never worked out in the past, so perhaps I should change my wants...but when your heart is reaching for it's most wanted desires, it's extremely hard to tell it no. So, I'm sort of struggling with that. And the fact that I'm here for a year, so I can let myself be here and enjoy myself for a year, but what's going to happen when my year (or 2 or 5 or 82 years) are over? How will I feel then? Will I be able to change my heart? And I think that maybe I'm so enjoying everything because it's new. Will I eventually get bored with it? Like I do with the all the other cities? I don't know. But my roller coaster emotions are a little hard to deal with. AND there are times where I don't quite feel at ease, like I realize I don't belong and then my emotions plummet and it's a whole cycle of tough stuff!!

My mom is officially gone. She's on her flight back to the states, so I'm on my own! EEEEk, scary...but at the same time... FREEEEEEEEDOM!!!! And sooo thankfully we resolved our issues. I'm so glad for that because I'm not sure what I'd do without my mom, she's legit. my best friend which sounds super lame, but is actually awesome.

Oh, Korea.

Today's been pretty interesting. The best part I think, is that I stopped by my coworkers house just now on my way back up to my room because we were supposed to go for a walk today, but I got stuck doing something else all day that I will tell you about in a smidge. I peeked around the corner at his apartment and heard noise (like tv noise) and so I knocked on the door...no answer BUT the noise turned off. LMAO. AWKWARRRD. Luckily there aren't peep holes in Korea so he couldn't see it was me, though I don't know who else knocks on his door. I kind of assumed maybe his girlfriend was there.

Today I had to go to immigration to get my ID card. And it was a hot mess. There were 158 people in front of me, so about a 3 hour wait. We got their at 3 and around 3:30 we decided to leave because I have a class at 6. So I have to go back tomorrow :(

My co-worker was the one that took me. She's so funny...so Korean. She asked me where I got my perm done, and I told her it was natural. "WOW! Really? Can I touch it??" Hilarious.

On the way back to the apartment, she asked the bus driver if the bus went to my stop and he COMPLETELY ignored her. Didn't even look at her or acknowledge that she was there! And the guy behind us said it stopped there and then literally SHOVED us onto the bus. Really rude stuff people! Then he sat behind me and like hugged my chair so I couldn't lean back. But she kept commenting about him and you could tell he was totally eves dropping on our conversation. So eventually, he leaned back in his own seat. Strange people, these people.

But now...middle school kids :( BAHHH.

That Fan is Now Brown

Life has randomly spiraled out of control and I'm not exactly sure what's happening. Last night I went out with Eddie to meet his friend a few cities over. We had a few drinks and had some fun. The plan was that I was supposed to go have a drink or two and then come back and Eddie would stay there. But when the time came for me to hop on the bus, I realized..well I had had a few drinks, it was dark, I didn't have a phone because I gave it to my mother for her to travel to see her brother and it would have been the first time I was riding the bus alone. Needless to say, I chickened out and stayed there for the night. I texted my mom to tell her (which I personally think is a courtesy, since I'm an adult and haven't had a curfew for about 8 years now) and she called me. My aunts were apparently in my apartment... MY apartment...and I suppose it shined a bad light on me for spending the night out. But frankly, I wasn't out doing anything scandalous and if they want to judge and gossip about me being a tramp that's their business not mine or my moms.

However, that's apparently not how my mom saw it. And when I got back to my apartment the next morning, the shit hit the fan (pardon my french). And I'm not exactly sure why. I'm so incredibly upset about it and everything that's been said and done, but there's nothing I can do to resolve the situation because she can't see anything passed her own point of view, which is how it's always been. So now she's upset and I'm upset and she goes home tomorrow. While yes, I'll be glad to have my freedom back, I don't like the idea of her leaving on bad terms.

TGIF...yeah, right!

Today was kind of an interesting day. I started out not knowing what time I had to work, and then realized how unorganized things can be. I got to work, and didn't know what class I was teaching or where it was! And the Saturday class is 3 hours long, soooo...wow. I ended up with 3 people in class 2 women and 1 man. The guy kept checking out my goods and it made me a little uncomfortable because in that setting, I'm not quite sure what to do about that situation! But other than that the class went alright, I felt like I actually managed the time well, and they were very good at having conversations even if I wasn't necessarily leading it. However, I think that the man and one woman had some serious issues with each other because she's more liberal and modern whereas he's very conservative and they really bumped heads a lot.

Then, I had lunch and cleaned and took a nap and was pretty bored for a while. Luckily Eddie came over and we went for a nice long walk. I think hanging out with him is going to be good for my health, he seems very outdoorsy and healthy so that's nice for me! We walked to this random stream which is really pretty and that led us to a lake and a park and it was wonderful. It'll be a great place to go running before the weather goes sour. He also pointed out the redlight district when we walked passed it...two streets over from mine, awesome.

The street behind my house is really neat, it's called Rodeo [Row-Day-Oh] (like Rodeo Drive in L.A. not like the rodeo with cowboys and bulls). But it's really busy and full of restaurant and bars and street vendors. Today they were selling (?) little baby bunnies wearing jackets. TOOOOOO cute!

And kids in Korea drive their bikes or hotwheels like their parents are stereotyped to drive their cars...sooo, needless to say, little kids run me off the sidewalk on a daily basis. It's kind of a thing here that pedestrians really don't matter, so bikers (bicyclers, motorcyclers and mopeders) will run you off the street and then look at you like "How DARE you be walking on MY sidewalk?!?" because yes, they drive on the sidewalk. And the kids give you the same look. Craziness. I often wonder if maybe they do it on purpose to me because I'm a foreigner, or if they do it everyone haha.