All Fun and Games!

Oh man, I seriously need to get back into updating more regularly.  I'll do better; I promise.  Soon my schedule will be packed with cool events and trips, so I'll have a lot to talk about.

Life has pretty much settled back down to normal.  Work all day, go home and watch seasons of Dexter, go to bed, wake up, repeat.  It is good to be back in the groove of things.  We've also gotten back to having Gangdong-gu Cru meetups, so that is nice.  On our first Thursday after the school year began, Liz and Papa Kim took all of the foreigners in the building out to dinner.  It was really nice to put faces to the remaining names of newbies, and just generally bond with people in our building.  The food was fantastic...it was the same restaurant that she took Carl, Monica and I to when they visited.  I am so thankful to have landlords who are caring, generous and parental.  They make up for any negative things about this apartment.

Clockwise from left: Caitlin, Josephine, Bryan, Andrew (being a dork), Cory, Frank, Jamie, Shannon (Liz told us to invite friends!)

Clockwise from left: Liz, Me, Lee-Rae, Adam, Michael, Dave, Erika, Melissa

Clockwise from left: Teresa, Diana, Carin, Papa Kim, Sang

Last weekend I organized a group going to the Seoul FC game against Gwangju.  I love the soccer games here, I only wish they weren't on the other side of the woooorld (read: Seoul).  We had a quality group: me, Erich, Chrissy, a cool couchsurfer named Heather, Julia and two of her friends, Lee-Rae and Michael, Shannon and Jamie, and Frank and Melissa.  We held it down for the foreigners, making up our own cheers, etc.  Gotta represent.  In typical Korean soccer fashion, the first half passed without any score, and the second half was all shots at the goal.  Seoul actually got it in five times, but only three counted (offsides).  Still they won, and all was right with the world.  We also killed about four dozen double chocolate chip cookies that I had baked on Friday.  It was great.  After the game most people headed home, but Chrissy, Heather, Jamie, Shannon and I hung out for a while drinking and talking outside the GS25.  We ended up staying longer than expected so we had to take a taxi half of the way home once the trains stopped running.  Taxis are so cheap here that it didn't really matter, though.

Michael and Lee-Rae donning their warpaint

Holla at the waegook cheering section.

(Lee-Rae, blame Erich's faux hawk for you being blocked!)

Let's go Seoul!

Sigh, the vuvuzela (or boo-boo-jael-ra, when directly translated from Korean) has made its way to Korean soccer stadiums.

Like a herd of angry bees.

Sunday I got to sleep in before meeting up with Dave, Chrissy, Shannon, Jamie and one of their friends for a trip to the board game cafe in Gangnam.  I've heard of Cafe Oz before, but I had never actually made it out there.  As I was standing in the subway station waiting for everyone to get there, I heard a HUGE clap of thunder.  Like I am talking EVERYONE stopped.  Cue the downpour.  I am so sick of rain here.  I know weather is going crazy all over the world, but this is just getting annoying!  I swear that for the first three months I lived here it never rained.  It certainly never rained like this.  I was able to leave my house without an umbrella and not constantly walk around in squishy shoes. Is that too much to ask for?  From what I hear, monsoon season came really late this year and typhoon season has been unusually bad for Korea (see last post!).  It is just incredibly annoying to always have to lug around an umbrella and an extra pair of socks.  The ground gets saturated so quickly and everything floods so you're wading through huge puddles.  Yesterday I went on a train over the Han and I couldn't believe how high the water was.  It came completely up to the grass (there is usually quite a drop over the concrete wall on the edges of the river).  Crazy.  It wouldn't be quite as bad if Koreans had any kind of umbrella etiquette, but they don't.  I can't cont the number of times that pointy little umbrella spears have hit me in the face/glasses as someone walked by and bumped into me.  The umbrellas are even dangerous when closed- people swing their arms as they go up and down the subway stairs, turning their already pointy umbrellas into little clubs.  I almost punched a guy who hit me directly on the bruise I have on my knee from falling up the stairs (cest la vie).  I also DESPISE how when its raining really hard, everyone stops at the top of the subway exit.  They form a wall you have to push through as you struggle to put up your umbrella, dodge their pointy bits, and try not to get soaked.  It is a mess and a half.  SO done with the rainy season.

Giant puddles swallow the paths everywhere.

Anyway, we battled our way through the wall of people at the top of the Gangnam subway exit and walked through the POURING rain to Cafe Oz.  It is a pretty neat idea...basically you pay 3,000won a person (about $2.40) per hour and have full access to a huge inventory of board games.  They really run the gamut in game types, difficulty level, etc.  It is pretty sweet.  We warmed up with some Halli Galli, which, coincidentally, I SUCK AT, or so I learned.  There are cards with various pictures of fruit on them and you go around the table placing down cards.  In the center of the playing area there is a bell and whenever you see five of a single type of fruit you are supposed to ring the bell.  SURPRISE, I suck at counting quickly, haha.  Boo math and number games!  After that we transitioned to a drawing game (one person had a minute and a half to describe a picture and points were awarded to each person who drew various parts of the picture that was described) and word games (first a game where you were given two letters and the first team to come up a with a word that started with letter 1 and ended with letter 2 won, then Taboo!)  We had a good time and it was just a good way to kill a few hours on a rainy Sunday afternoon.

Super disturbing (and complicated!) German board game called Porn Star at Cafe Oz.

Tuesday was Shannon's birthday and I really wanted to bake her some homemade cheesecakes to celebrate. Monday night Julia, Frank and I met for dinner at Gimbab Sarang and then came back to my apartment to do some baking.  I've been kind of riding a baking high since I came back to Korea.  I've made some SERIOUSLY delicious cookies (regular chocolate chip and milk chocolate/white chocolate chunk) and muffins (apple cinnamon muffins that were to DIE for) so I was ready to tackle mini-cheesecakes.  How hard could it be, right?  I amassed my supplies (including package upon package of costly, imported Philadelphia cream cheese) and we were ready to get to work.  Um...it was an EPIC fail.  Really terrible.  The cheesecakes looked exactly like someone made a tasty cheesecake, dropped it on the ground, a truck ran over it, and then they scooped it up and smushed it back down into mini muffin tins.  Horrible.  Thankfully they tasted okay...but they looked HIDEOUS.  We did, however, have a fantastic time baking them, including lots of laughing at our misfortune.  I was really glad Julia and Frank were there...if I had been alone I would have likely been crying in the corner!

Frank whipping away at cream cheese.

Julia toiling as she chops apples (which we didn't even end up using!)

Baking...it is all downhill from here.

Smiiile, though your heart is breaking...

Whyyyy, for the love of god, whyyyy?

Wednesday night was the Cru meet up at Shannon and Jamie's so we got to celebrate her birthday with my monstrosities and an ice cream cake from Coldstone.  Lots of people came, including Josephine, another new teacher who is working middle school in our district.  She is working at a BRAND new middle school (only one grade level so far) so she may or may not be working with those crazies for winter and summer camps.  We aren't really sure what part of the district she'll be grouped with.  Anyway, the get together was good as per usual.

The ice cream cake and carious cheesecakes (yes, some have crushed cookies on top).

Everyone looking giddy.

One of the things that has really consumed a lot of what would otherwise be blogging time was acting at the friendly neighborhood waegook activity planner.  Basically there is a lot I want to do this year, especially since I know it is my last year teaching here for the foreseeable future.  Shannon was saying that it is strange because this year rather than thinking "Wow, I have a whole year ahead of me," I find myself thinking "Holy crap, half my time here is already over!"  There is a lot I still want to experience, and a lot of places I still want to visit.  One of my goals for the year is to get out of Seoul at least once a month.  Living in a city 24/7 can be a little soul crushing, so I want to have a chance to explore even more of Korea.  To that end I've been stalking the Korean Tourism Website, trying to find fun stuff for us to go experience.  Fall, especially September and October, are really festival heavy here, so there are literally more festivals than we will be able to attend.  I picked my favorites and sent out a mass message to everyone to see what they would be interested in.  It is a lot of work organizing everything, but at the same time I enjoy doing it and if I plan it it means we do what I want, haha.  I had some big and/or famous festivals that garnered a lot of interest (Andong International Mask Dance Festival), some that just sounded hilarious (Gwangju Kimchi Culture Festival), and some that were just smaller, more local events.

The Anseong Baudeogi Festival was hyped up a lot on the KTO website.  "Prepare yourself to be dazzled and delighted by puppet shows, plays, acrobatics, and plate-spinning.  Don't forget to visit the traditional marketplace or take part in one of the experience programs," it encouraged me.  Dana and I woke up early and trekked over to the Express Bus Terminal to take the hour and a half bus ride from Seoul to Anseong.  I had specifically asked Yeon Ah to call them the day before and confirm that the festival still took place even if it was raining. They assured me (through her..perhaps that was the problem) that should it rain they would just move the events inside.  Ok, I can work with that.  Dana and I caught up on the way out, as well as napping, so that was restorative.  All of a sudden we were in Anseong at a bus stop and everyone was getting off...so we got off too.  Later we learned that this was not the Anseong Terminal, but some random stop outside a university along the way.  We grabbed a taxi and he took us out to the festival "grounds."  Basically a small river cuts through a ghetto area in Anseong and they set up the festival along the river's banks.  In nice weather, this would be picturesque.  Thanks to the rain, everything looked dirty, and the river was moving really fast and beginning to overflow its banks.  The entire festival grounds basically turned into a swamp with reeking mud that squished over your shoes.  Lovely.  We walked the full length of the festival grounds, confused by the fact that NOTHING WAS GOING ON.  At that point it was really just misting, so we were unsure as to where all these fun and dazzling events were happening.  It was deserted.  Not only were there no performances going on, but all of tents where I was promised an opportunity to experience things or shop for traditional items were empty.  Some of the vendors were actually packing up their tables and loading up trucks when we arrived at noon on Saturday...and the festival was supposed to last through Sunday night!  Dana used her mad Korean skills to ask a vendor what the heck was going on and they said that stuff wasn't happening because it was raining and they had no idea when or if things would start again because no one told them anything.  Helpful.

I think this picture really captures the festival.  

In nice weather, I bet this festival is AWESOME.  In rain...it is abysmal.

Overflowing river + stinky mud = no festival.  They were actually shoveling the mud with snow shovels.  (Not sure where those snow shovels were when it actually SNOWED.)

We figured that if worst came to worst we could at least buy a delicious lunch in an air conditioned restaurant.  We started walking towards the main road, but then stopped to ask a girl for directions to a restaurant with aircon.  She was sweet and helpful but ended up taking us the absolute opposite direction and depositing us at an open tent where they were unsanitarily (made up that word, embrace it) cooking up various dishes, but (strangely) not the dishes we wanted from the menu.  The food was alright, but expensive for what it was, and there was a hair in the kimchi.  Just icing.  After that we were ready to bolt.  It was clear that nothing else was going to be happening at this illustrious festival, so we went to catch a taxi.  Standing on a corner near the festival grounds was obnoxious, because EVERY car stopped at the light stared at me as though I were on display.  I don't know if they don't get a lot of foreigners over in Anseong (we were the only ones we saw) or what, but JESUS.  Entire cars of people would just sit, idling, and stare.  No embarassment, nothing.  Dana was laughing really hard...she's not used to it because as a Chinese American she is able to blend in a little bit.  No such luck for me.  Eventually we got a taxi and it dropped us off a the Anseong Bus-uh Ter-mee-nahl.  We only had to wait a few minutes for the bus to spirit us away and back to Seoul.  Dana stayed to do some shopping and I went home to sulk about my first real failed adventure.  I was so thankful that it was only Dana and I...we are both pretty good at just letting go, so we still had a good time.  What a bizarro adventure.

Dana sporting the giant paper ajumma visors we snagged.

Sad face.

Hair in the kimchi is a major party foul.

When I got home I started up season 2 of Dexter and changed into my pajamas.  I was pretty much intending to stay parked there, but then I got a text from Shannon asking if I would be interested in meeting them for burgers at an American owned joint by their house.  I had heard of this place before, but I'd never been, so I decided it would be worth it.  I met them at 7 and enjoyed a tasty bacon cheeseburger.  After dinner I was going to head home and clean my apartment since I'm hosting the get together this week...but instead I went on a shopping trip to HomePlus with Jamie and Shannon and their back to their place for a bottle of Cuervo, hilarious viral videos, a sing-a-long, and good discussion.  Oh, and some New England Clam Chowder.  Delicious.  As I stumbled home, exhausted after an excellent night, I couldn't help but be thankful for the friends I've made here.

Sunday I had to cancel my ASL meet-up, so I spent the morning laying in bed and cleaning the apartment.  I also did some laundry...I'm just hoping it is dry by WEDNESDAY when everyone comes over.  That is another major annoyance with the rain...everything is so humid it takes forever and a day to dry.  Last night I went to see a live stage performance of Rocky Horror Picture Show at COEX with two teachers who I had either met only once (Naomi) or had never met (Linda).  I have blog stalked Naomi since we got here, but we had only met once at orientation when she borrowed a power cord.  We talk on Facebook and I kind of felt like I knew her already, and vice versa since she also reads my blog.  She had sent out a Facebook message to all the people who stayed in Seoul asking if anyone was interested in Rocky Horror or a Shakespeare performance, and I was intrigued by Rocky Horror and wanted to go, so it all worked out.  The show was great...the voices of the performers were phenomenal.  Dr. Frank-N-Furter was played by a VERY muscular, tall, black man, which was interesting.  He was even more cut than Rocky!  But man could he sing and move in those platform heels.  I would have died, no question.  It was nice just to have dinner and bond with two other random SMOEers, too.  After the show I came home and cleaned some more before hitting the sheets.

Linda, Naomi and I, pumped for Rocky Horror.

As far as school goes, things have been going really smoothly.  I got two new co-teachers: Ga Young replaced Eun Kyung, and JunHee replaced my hated male CT.  Ga Young is more of a disciplinarian, while JunHee is brand new to teaching and very bubbly.  I liked her instantly.  She is friends with my old CT so I can't bad-mouth him, but it really made me laugh when one of the fourth grade students asked if he was her boyfriend and she laughed out loud before saying "Ummm, no.  He is not my style."  Love.  She was really nervous because this is her first time teaching ever, but I think she'll do just fine.  Today I almost lost my voice as I had to sing a song over and over again with the kids.  This lesson is about asking if people want more of something (usually foods) so I rewrote the lyrics to "Brother John" and the kids sing it.  For example...

I am thirsty! I am thirsty!
Is that so? Is that so?
Do you want some water? Do you want some water?
Here you go. Here you go.

Then I have different verses for different drinks, and a whole set of "I am hungry" verses that we all sing together.  Then we sing two verses as a round.  The kids were surprisingly good singers...I am going to have to video tape on of my classes on Wednesday.

One thing that is kind of crazy and mixing things up at school right now is the fact that each grade is practicing for a big sports day.  I think last year's must have been cancelled for swine flu, because I would not have missed this.  Every grade has to learn some choreographed, synchronized, very involved traditional folk dance.  Sometimes using unconventional props.  The third graders (and keep in mind this is like 120 third graders) are doing a synchronized dance with hula hoops.  The fourth graders have multi-colored umbrellas. I am actually not sure what the fifth graders use, but the sixth grade girls are using these huge, traditional Korean fans.  It is fascinating to watch them practice, but it is definitely screwing up our schedule.  The first two classes of third graders that I usually have on Friday have been moved to sixth period (which I honestly didn't even know our school had) on Tuesday and Thursday.  That makes my Tuesdays extremely long- six classes back to back.  I do not love.  However it only goes for another few weeks as the sports day is October 8.  I am excited to watch it!

It is still a challenge to work with Yeon Ah sometimes.  She is absolutely pleasant, but her English is really low.  I'll give you an example of a conversation from the other day.

I am sitting at the computer between our classes.  She is fiddling with her cell phone.  She walks over.
YA: Can I ::mumble sounding like post:: on something?
Me: Sure.
I stand up to let her use the computer because I think she needs to post on some message board or something.  Instead she stands right in front of me and sticks her hands out, palms down.  Confused, I wait a beat for something else to happen.  Then, thinking maybe I am supposed to do something, I put my hands out in front of me, palms down.
YA: Nails!
Me: Nails...?
YA: I paint.  So I want boast on them.
I realize she has painted her nails with little flowers, and she wanted to "boast" about it.


Sigh.  Imagine that times eight hours a day times five days a week.  And this week I am also going out to dinner with her and her husband.  The back story is as follows: a few months ago I may have mentioned that she brought in an essay that her husband had to write in English for some project at work.  I edited it a few times and made a ton of changes, while still keeping his ideas in tact.  Turns out that her husband recently got a promotion at work, and his boss actually said that it was because his English essay was so good!  Can I open a business writing these things for Koreans?  I mean, I'd much rather write their essays than my grad school application personal statements!

Yes, in case you were wondering, I am still plugging away at grad school apps.  I have pretty much taken Oxford off my list because their application is excessively long, very confusing, and incredibly detailed.  Weighing the chances of me getting in (WITH funding) against the amount of work it just seems silly to keep going.  That will also give me more time to concentrate on my other, more probable schools.  Moral of the story, after about 20 revisions, I never want to see my resume again.

Aside from school and graduate school applications, I'm also planning my trip to Japan over Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving).  Because of how the lunar and solar calendars worked this year, we ended up getting almost an entire week off for Chuseok.  Many people DID get a full week off, but we have to come in on Monday.  Basically this weekend I chill, I go to work on Monday (though I'll be kind of surprised if I teach), and then I am off Tuesday-Sunday.  Tuesday afternoon Diana and I are going to fly over to Osaka.  Tuesday we'll tour Osaka in the evening and then stay there Tuesday and Wednesday night (with a day trip to Nara on Wednesday).  On Thursday we'll head over to Kyoto, stay there overnight in a really nice ryokan, spend Friday exploring some more, and then come back to Osaka on Friday evening.  Saturday we fly back to Seoul in the early evening.  I am excited...I mean Japan isn't really a place I have a super strong desire to visit, but I think I would regret it if I hadn't gone when I'm so close (only an hour and a half flight from Seoul to Osaka).  Good god is that country expensive!! I don't know how teachers live there...it is deadly to get around at all.  And the cheapest hostel we could find was like $40 per person each night.  That is crazytown.  Better be worth it!  Tonight Diana came over and we had breakfast for dinner at Bunch before coming back to my apartment to plan for the trip.  It is exciting to have all of our hotels booked...I feel accomplished!  Next we just need to finalize some plans about things we want to see, etc.  I think it will be great.

This Wednesday I am hosting a party for the new kids in my building as well as old friends.  My mom planted the seed in my brain to do a Minute to Win It themed party.  Basically it is a new reality/competition show in the US where people are given a minute to complete various challenges that call on all types of skills.  The common thread is that I am pretty sure they were all thought up at a frat party.  Look forward to hilarious stories and pictures! Now it is just a matter of where I am going to put the 20+ people who RSVPed that they're coming!

As sort of a post script I just wanted to include a picture of something I love about Korea.  Since people all live in crazy high rises and it is often difficult to move, they have come up with an ingenious system.  Big moving trucks will send out this cool elevator to whatever floor you're on and send your belongings up and down.  So smart!

Typhoon Kompasu!

Wow, this morning we experienced only the second truly crazy weather pattern I've seen since I got to Korea (the first being the BLIZZARD last January).  Last night we had one of our weekly get-togethers for teachers in our area, this time at Erich's apartment over in Myeongil.  It was especially exciting because 1.) We had all been strewn about the globe for the past few weeks and most of us hadn't seen each other, and 2.) We brought two new people into the fold!  Last week when handing out cookies we met Lee-Rae, an Australian girl who took over Candace's apartment two doors down from me.  I had also met her boyfriend earlier (Michael from Scotland), who happens to live only one stop away at Gangdong.  Shannon did a little investigative work and found out that Michael took over Ed's old position, so he would be in the same cohort as them for winter camp and stuff.  This incited a flurry of exchanged phone numbers and e-mail addresses, and we invited them to our little outing.  I am surprised we didn't scare them off...they are a hearty pair.  Both excellent people I look forward to hanging out with in the future.  We even had a little We-Survived-A-Full-Year! cake, courtesy of Julia and Paris Baguette.

Yaaaay, we made it!

After the festivities died down, I left Erich's to find that it was starting to get a little windy and rainy.  I waited (FOREVER) for the subway, came home, and crashed soon thereafter.  This morning around 4:00am I was awoken by noise of wind and clanging outside.  I drifted in and out of sleep for the next few hours, woken up each time downpours of rain were whipped against my window or a particularly obnoxious sound (I think it was the street sign shaking) made itself known.  When I finally got up and looked out the window it was clear that we were still experiencing Typhoon Kompasu, which tracked directly over Seoul during the early hours of the morning.  Roofing tiles were flying off the building across from me, tarps were snapping in the gusts of wind, and awnings from restaurants and stores were being stressed to (and sometimes beyond) their breaking point.  It was crazytown!  After calling my parents and speaking with my Dad about the storm, I decided to head to school a little early so that I could follow the State Department's advice and get some money out of the ATM.  It was SO windy.  As soon as I got down to the corner my umbrella blew inside out.  I scrambled through the rain and into the little bank vestibule where the ATMs are, only to find out that their network was down.  Probably thanks to the same winds that were making my electricity flicker on and off this morning.

I got on the subway (warily, as I am STILL not sure what would happen if they lost power...I mean there have to be back-up generators, right?) and headed to work without incident.  When I came out of exit 5 at Jamsil it was clear that there was a LOT of destruction.  HUGE trees were down all over the place, smashed through the metal fence and brick walls that separate the apartment complexes from Olympic-ro, the main street that runs in front of Lotte World.  Walking a little further I find out that the ENTIRE huge sidewalk (at least 2 car lanes wide) is eventually blocked by giant downed trees.  I had to walk in the street to get to school and back track twice to avoid areas that were too blocked/treacherous.  When I finally arrived in our office, Yeon Ah was the only one there.  As I sat down she got a text message saying that students didn't have to come in until 11:00am because the storm was so bad.  Finally it blew over and the kids arrived, even though there is NOT A CHANCE IN HELL that we would have had school in the US.  Never run the risk of bringing kids into buildings where there are huge windows surrounding them in high winds...just doesn't make a lot of sense.  Here are some pictures, for your viewing pleasure.

Kompasu in its way to Seoul, 5:33pm last night.

In our faces, 1:33am today.  That is one large storm system...and on the scale here it is a "small" typhoon!

Main street by my house.  Notice the leaves and debris all over.

Trees a-swayin' across the street (and at least one down).

Fighting to keep up our umbrellas in Jamsil.

Yikes.

All the trees just popped out of the ground.  They must have really shitty root systems.

My path to school, now a path of destruction.

But...how do I get to school?  Ah, yes, walking in the (ever so safe) bus lane.  During rush hour.

Another large tree down by the other side of the station.

After extensive clean up all day.

All in all, I would not like to be a clean up person in Seoul this year.

Home!

Ahh, sorry it has been almost a month since my last post.  However, if you read my last post you know that I was running around like crazy preparing for my trip back to the states.  Friday, August 6 I ran around like crazy, heading back over to Immigration to clear up the issues I had with them (They didn't give me the right kind of visa and I didn't find out until Thursday night...when I was scheduled to fly out Saturday!  STRESS.).  That night I went over to Julia's for her rooftop party.  It still hasn't sunk in that she has gone home to the US.  We were on the same flight over from Chicago (she, Erich and I all sat in the same row, while Brigid and Laura were also on the plane) and she's been a major part of my Korea experience.  I miss you already Julia!  I cut out of the party early (before we ever made it to the rooftop, strangely enough) and headed home to pack.  I got home just after midnight and STARTED packing.  I ended up going to bed around 5:00am to sleep for a few hours before I went to the airport around 1:00pm.  After some minor airport bus drama (thanks for moving the stop to the other side of the street but not moving the sign, Korea) I made it to the airport and killed an hour or two before boarding my plane.


I wish I could say that the trip home was uneventful, but dude, I EARNED my visit to Maryland.  I boarded the plane, found my seat, and settled in.  Uh, lets just say that I will never fly a non-Asian carrier home again.  Asian carriers (Korean Air, All Nippon, Asiana, etc) blow the American carriers out of the water in terms of technology.  On my original flight over we had seat back screens with personal controllers that allowed you to access over 40 movies and a bunch of different games.  You could start and stop your movies whenever you wanted them and it was basically magical.  The United flight back to the states was...less magical, haha.  There weren't even seat back screens! We all had to watch TV-sized shared screens on the wall that was in front of our section of seats.  And you, obviously, had to watch the same thing as everyone else did, at the same time.  It wasn't great.  Anyway, we were about to take off, having already taxied to the runway, and the captain came over the intercom and told us that we had to go back because the cargo in the bottom of the plane was unbalanced.  Uhhh, ok.  Glad they caught that BEFORE we took off!  It took them about 45 minutes to move stuff around and get us back out onto the runway, which set into motion the following chain of events....


I was supposed to have a nearly two hour layover in the San Francisco airport, putting me back in DC (Dulles) around 9:00pm.  Since we landed in San Fran almost an hour late, I knew I would be cutting it close.  We deplaned and I went to stand in the (long) immigration line.  Some other (very PG) women from my flight made some noise to the immigration officers, so they nicely opened a separate line just for the 10-15 of us that were heading into DC in hopes that we could get processed quickly and be on our way.   I breezed through immigration and went out to wait for my luggage.  And wait.  And wait.  I am not exaggerating when I say that my luggage was in the absolute LAST group to be unloaded from the plane.  At this point, I know there is little hope, but I rush down to Customs.  As I get there, Customs Officer A is checking passports, forms, etc.  Customs Officer B walks up just as I get there and C.O. A points to me and says "How about this one?"  C.O. B informs me that I've been chosen to complete a "random customs survey" and pulls me aside.  I tell him I'd be glad to do it but that I am trying to make a plane.  I didn't realize at this point that "survey" is code for "search of all your bags."  He promised to be quick and then went through all three of my bags, taking stuff out, asking me questions, etc.  Apparently I look like a smuggler.  After proclaiming that this is the quickest survey he's done in a while, he sends me on my way.  I get outside only to find out that I am definitely too late and I have to stand in a line to be rescheduled.  That line moved at a GLACIAL pace, but eventually I made it through and they put me on a flight about four hours later.  I checked my bags and headed towards the gate where my next flight would depart.  On the way I had to go through security and the underwire in my bra set off the metal detector, causing them to make me walk through the detector about 8 times and then forcing them to do a full body pat down, etc.  Are you freaking kidding me?  It was not my day.  I got into DC around 12:45am and I was met by my parents and my brother.  It was great to see them, and really nice that Mike came down from NYC for the weekend just to get me.  We drove home and I crashed.


My brother and I spent the day together Sunday and we went down to the Holocaust Museum in DC.  We had been together once before, but not since I was in high school.  It was nice just to be back in DC.  We did the museum thing and then went home where I fell asleep around 8:00pm, just as my brother was leaving for the train station to go back to NYC.  Monday I went to the dentist, where he was able to fix my busted filling and even squeeze in a tooth cleaning since someone cancelled.  Ah the joys of dental insurance!  That night I went over to Gaebe's house and hung out with him, Carl, Greg and Liz.  I'm so glad I got to see Gaebe while he was home.  I love those kids.  Even mundane things like unwrapping a new refrigerator are fun with them.  


Tuesday began my meals with groups of people I wanted to see while I was home.  My mom, two of her close friends (Bonnie and Lauren), Bonnie's son (Russ) and I went out to dinner at one of my favorite restaurants: Lemongrass, Too in Annapolis.  Soooooo good.  It was wonderful just to chat with people, share stories, and catch up.  Even if Jenni, the third child of the group, was too cool to come to dinner.  Wednesday night Debbie, Gaebe and Greg came over to have some drinks and hang out on the new porch.  It was really chill.

I finally got to meet Rusty, our new dog.  Monochromatic much?

Don't let his small size fool you, he is a vicious beast.  He felled that giraffe all by himself.

My Belle.  Man I miss my dogs.

Thursday morning my mom and I left to drive up to Pennsylvania.  We spent the evening with my grandparents in Allentown and had some delicious cheese steaks.  Mmmm, so good.  Friday morning I woke up and drove the all too familiar route up to Scranton in my mom's van.  I went directly to Marywood and stopped in to get my transcripts ordered before heading down to McGowan to see if Sr. Fran, Dr. Arter and Dr. Fedrick were around.  Sr. Fran and Dr. Arter weren't there, so I went downstairs and I was happy to see that Dean Fedrick was there.  We spent almost an hour talking and catching up before I had to jet over to Sanderson Place for my hair appointment with the wonderful Heidi.  I got some bangs, better shape for my curls, and highlights.  Quite happy with the whole thing.  Once I was done there I called up Mileski and she met me at Marywood where we happened to catch Sr. Fran on her way out of the building.  We talked to her for a while and then went to Meghan's house so I could drop off my car.  Meg then took me up to Maiolatesi's, a winery in Jessup for a wine tasting that was AWESOME.  They have a white cayuga watermelon wine that is to DIE for (evidenced by the fact that I bought two bottles, haha).  After the winery we had just enough time to go home and change before driving up to Clarks Summit to meet everyone at State Street Grill for dinner.  Holy crap, that was one of the best dinners ever, and not because of the food (that was good, if slow), but rather because of the people who were there!  It was a near perfect reunion of some of the most important people to my Marywood experience.  Shannon came down from Binghamton and James and Meredith came out from Jersey JUST for the meal.  I am so spoiled by awesome friends.  Amanda came down for the night from Jersey, and Julia and Andrea both came out to dinner, even though Julia is VERY pregnant.  God, it was so nice  good food, wonderful friends, hilarious stories and gossip...a girl couldn't ask for more.  That night Amanda and I slept at Meghan's.

Meghan and I at the winery.

Andrea and Julia!  Best student life staff a university could ask for.

Shannon!! All grown up and married...so crazy.

The wonderful and amazing Cozzarellis: James and Meredith.

Saturday morning we woke up and walked (Amanda and I) and ran (Meghan) a charity 5K.  You know how I do.  It was nice to get a little 1:1 time with Mandarin as we walked together.  Once we went home, showered and changed, it was time to go over to the Banshee where I was meeting a few girls from the sorority for lunch.  It turned out that the only Zetas who could come were Jo Anna (all the way from DE!) and  Vanessa, but it was a good time.  And, I mean, you can NEVER go wrong with Woodchuck on tap.  After lunch I drove back down to Allentown and hung out with my grandparents again.  Sunday was a pretty relaxing day and a bunch of family came over in the evening to a little shindig that my grandparents organized. I love picnic food and adorable little family members.  Monday turned into an adventure when my mom decided we should run down some genealogy leads in New Jersey with some visits to graveyards.  My mom, grandparents and I piled into the van and drove out to Morris County, NJ where we slogged through wet grass and played find the gravestone.  Thankfully we had pictures that someone else had loaded on ancestry.com and I am a MASTER at finding things based on landmarks in pictures, so it wasn't too bad.  One of the graves we found belonged to my great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather.  Pretty sweet.  Tuesday morning I said my goodbyes to my grandparents and my mom and I headed back down to the Old  Line State.  On the way we stopped at my aunt/uncle/cousins' house in Virginia where I got to see Ty and Michae and hang out with them for a bit, which was really nice.  Good god they are getting old fast.

Lookin' good for the 5k!

Zetas Vanessa and Jo Anna

Love these two sky big.  Mileski and Mandarin.

Wednesday afternoon my mom and I went down to the Kennedy Center to see Mary Poppins.  It was good, of course, but I don't think I'd go see it again.  It was really long, especially for the MANY kids in teh audience.  It was pretty sweet to have Mary fly over the audience in the Opera Hall, though.  Wednesday night I met up with the old roomies: Debbie, Christina and Sammie.  We started the evening at Menchie's a new fro-yo place in Annapolis Towne Center.  HOLY CRAP it is so good.  They have like 14 flavors on tap and then a billion toppings you can put in/on.  You weigh the finished product at the end and it was surprisingly reasonably priced.  I went twice during my stay in MD, the first time I got Irish Mint fro-yo with Andes mint pieces, chocolate chips, and brownie pieces.  The second time I got Peanut Butter fro-yo with chocolate chips, brownie pieces, chopped up Reese's, and tiny peanut butter cups.  Just thinking about it now makes my stomach growl.  We took our concoctions and headed over to Annapolis Mall where we donned our 3-D glasses and saw Step Up 3-D.  We each squealed every time our boys from SYTYCD were on (Twitch! Joshua! Etc!) and overall the movie was alright.  I mean the plot was predictably...predictable.  The 3-D was interesting...sometimes it really detracted from what you were watching.  I got a little dizzy at points, esp when watching the dancing, but I lived.

Mom and I at the Kennedy Center.

Thursday my mom and I had lunch with two women from our DAR chapter.  I was inducted into the Daughters of the American Revolution after I left, so I have never met any of the other women.  I have heard a lot about them and vice versa so it was nice to put some faces with names.  That night I went over to the house in Crownsville and met up with the rest of Hilltop's Team T-Word.  Man, let me tell you, those ladies are the only ones who kept me sane while teaching in Maryland!  As soon as you put all of us (me, Debbie, Charlita, Kara, Robin, and Tracey) in a room together we go right back  to laughing and gossiping like I was never gone.  It was great to get some more stories about new crazy kids and...well...old crazy kids, haha.  It was a wonderful happy hour.  

Lunch with the DAR Ladies.  Mary Digges Lee Chapter represent!

Team T-Word...my favorites.  Debbie and I on top row. Tracey, Charlita and Kara on the bottom row.  (Robin not pictured, but there in spirit.)

Friday I spent the day with Erin (who came up from NC) and Liz.  We started the day by driving up through (the ghettos of) Baltimore to get to the National Great Blacks in Wax Museum.  I have honestly wanted to go there forever, so I was psyched.  It was...interesting.  Most of the wax figures were not what I think of as super realistic wax figures, and the ones that were were all grouped together.  The basement did, definitely, have some graphic displays with slave ships and lynching trees, but overall it was interesting.  Sadly we had to cut the trip short because I unintentionally locked my mom out of the house and had to meet her halfway to B-more to give her the key.  Oops.  After exchanging the key in Glen Burnie, we Googled a list of the best crab cakes in the Baltimore area and ended up at the Olive Grove restaurant in Linthicum.  I basically ODed on crab.  We had amazing lump crab dip, followed by these CRAZY, softball sized crab cakes.  Thank god the woman forgot to bring out my cream of crab soup, because I think I might have died.  After lunch it was back to Baltimore to the American Visionary Arts Museum, which is without question one of my favorite museums in the entire world.  So amazing.  We spent a while there, taking pictures, enjoying the art etc, before heading back to Bowie.  


When we got back to my house I threw together a bag full of stuff for the evening and we headed to Crownsville, stopping at Safeway for supplies we needed to make our various potluck foods.  Anna, Greg, Carl, Liz, Erin, Debbie and I had a wonderful potluck followed by some frustrating board gaming, haha.  Damn you, Articulate!  I ended up spending the night at the house and the next morning I packed up a bunch of stuff that was still there so we could take it to the storage unit.  My mom came over and we loaded up her van to take stuff over to my storage place in Laurel.  After dropping that all off, we came back to Bowie where I cleaned up some and prepped for movie night!  (One of the only downsides to my trip home was that somehow, somewhere, at some point between AVAM and my house the next day, I lost my camera.  So I had to buy a new one, spending yet more money.  Wonk wonk.)


I love movie nights so hard.  I predicted this one was going to be great because 1. It was movie night. 2. We had a quality group of people attending.  3. We were going to watch Human Centipede, a very graphic and disturbing movie I had heard a lot about.  Prediction: Correct.  The guest list was as follows:  Me, Carl, Liz, Erin, Anna, Greg, Kat Shieh Schooley and her husband Zak, Kate Scally and her boyfriend Luke, and Jo Anna (again trekking out from Delaware for a short time just to see me...I love her so much).  After going over to Bowie Towne Center to pick up food, we came back and settled in for the movie.  It was...disturbing for sure.  And hilarious when picked apart by our crew.  Go watch it...but you've been warned!  Afterwards we spent some time hanging out and talking and laughing on the porch before everyone headed home.

Kaaaaat!  Love bites to the max.

Movie nighters.  L to R: Me, Liz, Anna, Erin, Debbie, Greg, Kate, Jo Anna, Luke, and Carl in the front.

Sunday morning I got up and drove up to Delaware (through some of the worst rains I've ever driven in!) to visit Jo Anna's new house.  Katie, one of the other girls in our sorority, drove out from law school in Harrisburg to meet us, too!  I also got to see her (current and former) roomies Stephanie and Ming, and their menagerie of pets.  We drove from Newark out to Old Newcastle where we had a fanTASTIC lunch at a colonial pub and walked around for a bit down by the water.  All too quickly it was time for me to get on the road home, in an effort to avoid the beach traffic coming back over the Bay Bridge.  Thankfully it wasn't too bad...I most definitely benefited from the fact that it rained all day, as I think many of the beach-goers cleared out earlier than usual.  I got home and crashed fairly early as I had the dreaded GRE the next day.  Dun dun DUN.

Delaware lovelies:  Jo Anna, Stephanie, me, Katie, Ming

I miss living near water.

Sunset while waiting to get on the bay bridge.

The day of my test arrived and I collected all my materials: nicely sharpened #2 pencils, a scientific calculator borrowed from Debbie, a bottle of water, etc.  I rolled up to the testing center where the woman politely informed me that I couldn't bring anything into the testing room.  But...my pencils and calculator?  Nope.  They provide pencils and I am not allowed to use a calculator.

SCREECHING HALT.

Somehow, during all of this studying, it had somehow escaped me that YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO USE A CALCULATOR. I stepped out of the testing area lobby and called my mom, freaking out. I thought for sure there was no way I could do the test and perform decently without a calculator, but there was nothing I could do about it. I sat for the test and just stared at some of the math problems. Simply doing the basic computations took me forever as I checked and rechecked everything. It was absolutely terrible. For at least 5 of the questions I blindly guessed because there was no time. I was so upset. The writing section was okay, and the verbal section was alright, even though with all the thousands of words I studied there were a  few on the test I swear I hadn't ever seen.  

At the end of the test, before you see your score, you are given 5 minutes to decide if you want to report your test results to ETS or not. If you cancel your score, you don't get to see how you did. If you report your score to ETS, it is then on your permanent record, which schools can see even if you re-test.  Thankfully you put in the school codes after seeing the score, so that is some solace. I literally sat there for 4 of the 5 minutes going back and forth about cancelling the score. I was positive I had performed only ok on the verbal section and horribly on the math section. Finally my curiosity won out and I clicked the button to report/reveal my scores. "Are you sure you want to report your scores?" asks the condescending pop up window.  Yes.  

When the next screen came up, I could not freaking believe it. At first I was like "Wait, that must be what it is out of..." but then I remembered that it was not, as each section was out of 800.   I sat there confused for a few minutes before pushing the button to advance to the next section and filling out the information about the schools I wished to have the scores sent to (GW, UMD, Harvard and UPenn).  When I left the testing room the woman asked if I wanted a post-it to write down my score and I asked her incredulously if that had actually been my score that I was shown. She looked at me like I was crazy and said yes. In a bizarre twist of fate and skilled guessing, I scored a 700 on the math section. According to the Barron's book that apparently means that I got 24 out of the 28 questions correct, a feat I cannot imagine was possible.   Like, that is absolutely ridiculous.  Top 71st percentile in math?  Sure.  I also got a 600 on the verbal section, which must be harder because that score puts me in the 86th percentile.  Schweet!  I was just totally stunned (still am) and pretty blissed out since I was really just hoping for a 1000.  Success!

That night I had a little reunion dinner with some of my favorite Girl Scouts and their Moms.  Even though Morgan couldn't make it, Jenni, Christina and I had an excellent time doing the requisite sharing of information gleaned from Facebook stalking and discussions about our lives.  It was so good to catch up with them; I'm so sad I won't be around for Jenni's wedding in March!  I'll be there in spirit for sure.

Girl Scouts in the house.  Jenni and Christina.

The moms: Lauren, Karen and Nina.

Whole group...it was lovely to catch up!

Tuesday was spent running around doing last minute errands and shopping.  (Yeah, I just realized I never mentioned how much shopping I did at home...So much.  The first week I was back happened to be the annual Maryland Tax Free week, so I played that one to the hilt.  As I spent excessive amounts of money I kept reminding myself that the entire rest of the year I NEVER buy shoes or clothes, so I was allowed to splurge a little.  That was all fine and good until stuff BARELY fit in my bags on the way back to Korea!)  That evening I packed up all my stuff and went to sleep.  Wednesday morning my mom drove me back over to Dulles where I checked in without a hitch, snacked on a Cinnabon, and got all choked up as I said goodbye to my mom for the next 10 months or so.  I am sure the time is going to fly, and I know I have less time in front of me than has already passed here, so that is some solace.  I flew 14 hours to Tokyo and then had a quick layover before a 2.5 hour flight to Seoul.  It was uneventful.  I dragged all my crap onto the airport bus and made it all the way back to Gildong where I promptly unpacked my computer, let my mom know I had arrived safely, and crashed.

My view for 14 hours.

Since arriving home last Thursday night I've been fighting jet lag.  It sneaks up on me and knocks me down at the most inopportune times.  I had to come in to work on Friday from around 10:00am-3:00pm.  Then I headed home with the plan to lay down for a bit before going out to celebrate Laura's birthday in Hongdae.  I fell asleep around 6:00pm and didn't wake up until the next morning.  Oops.  On Saturday I met Shannon at HomePlus (one of my goals this year is to not be scared of that store anymore) and we bought all the supplies necessary to bake chocolate chip cookies for the newbies in our building.  The new teachers all moved in last week while I was gone so I wanted to touch base with them and let them know I'm around if they have any questions.  There are 8 new people in the building, 7 of whom are new to Korea.  We baked the cookies and watched some True Blood before making our rounds.  We talked to 5 of the 8 new people, and left cookies for the rest.  They seem like a good bunch, and we were already able to answer a fair number of their questions, so I feel useful.  Mama Liz and Papa Kim are taking us all out to dinner on Thursday so I will get to put faces with the last few names.  After baking all day I went over to Jamie and Shannon's for dinner before coming home to crash.

Korea only has strange, creepy little chocolate chips, so I made my own using chocolate bars.

HomePlus doesn't carry vanilla extract, so you have to use this strange Dutch substitute.  It tasted fine in the cookies, but it smelled like movie theater popcorn.  My whole apartment smelled like a cinema.

Crazy baking fool.

Yesterday I was all jet lagged and super crabby and the weather was abysmal (seriously, Korea, I am DONE with the freaking rainy season!) but I was finally convinced to leave my bed in order to go over to Jamie and Shannon's to eat pizza and watch True Blood.  That was a good time, even though I fell asleep near the end and had to leave before the last episode was finished.

Why, exactly, did our pizza have a pentagram on it?  The jury is still out.  It was tasty though.  Perhaps...TOO TASTY?

Today I came back to school, but didn't have to teach.  Eun Kyung officially quit and now I have a new permanent teacher named Ga Young.  Her English seems pretty good, even though she is nervous to talk to me still.  She'll get over it.  Apparently I start teaching tomorrow with my faaaaaavorite guy.  Hmph.  This week I have a Gangdong-Gu Cru meetup on Wednesday night to look forward to, and dinner on Thursday night.  Next week we finally get back to Dasi Hamkke meetings so we can put this book to bed!  Psyched...even though it won't be the same without Julia.

Today I wrote this blog entry all day, as well as doing some very fruitful Facebook stalking, some catching up with Trina (a college friend who I haven't talked to in FOREVER), and some quality trash talking with Amanda and Renee.  I have definitely been in Renee withdrawal these past few weeks; when I'm at work I talk to her almost every day!  This week the new online applications for grad schools also open, so I am going to have to start working on my personal statements, etc.  I am applying to 8 schools: NYU, Columbia, University of Pennsylvania, University of Pittsburgh, University of Maryland, George Washington University, Havard and Oxford.  We'll see how this goes!  Basically I'll be attending whatever school wants me and gives me the best deal.  Fingers crossed.  

So Angry!

Raaaaaaaaaaaaah!  Tonight, a perfectly lovely visit to the COEX Intercontinental Hotel to take advantage of their amazing food and wine buffet had a cloud cast over it when I found out through talking to other NSETs that when I went to immigration on Tuesday to get my visa extended they neglected to put a necessary sticker in my passport noting the change of expiration IN ADDITION to only giving me a single entry visa instead of a multiple entry visa.  On all the paperwork we were given for renewal, the only cost that presented itself was the 30,000won visa renewal fee.  I guess I figured that since my visa was a multiple entry visa (thanks to the 50,000won fee I paid last year), that the renewal would be a renewal of a MULTIPLE ENTRY VISA.  Of course, that is not the case.  And, of course, I am leaving the country on Saturday.  My brand new, current, single entry visa would be cancelled upon my departure from Korea.  This obviously means that tomorrow after camp I have to skip the celebratory closing lunch being purchased by the school to make the one and a half hour trek out to the immigration office on the other side of town.  And, just to make things even more obnoxious, all of the appointments are (understandably) already reserved for tomorrow, so I just have to go, take a number, and hope for the best.  I am just so frustrated.  I know for a FACT that when I filled out the form I checked "multiple entry" under the visa category.  Therefore, we have two possible reasons why the immigration officer did not question the fact that I was apparently only paying for a single entry visa.  1. He was (somewhat unsurprisingly) racist and just figured I was a dumb foreigner who checked the wrong box so it wasn't worth his time to ask me.  2. He didn't speak English well enough to ask me, nor did he feel like asking one of the English speakers around him to ask in his stead.  Either way...I am pissed.  I haven't even begun to pack, I have camp until 1:30pm tomorrow, then I have to go out and wait around at immigration until they can see me.  Tomorrow evening I am going over to Julia's for a going away party since she leaves before I return to Korea.  I want to spend as much time with her as possible since I am going to miss her sky big, but I have to get back and pack so I am ready to get on the airport bus at 2:30pm Saturday afternoon.  On top of all of this I am having severe money stress: I calculated what I thought I would need until I left and then transferred basically EVERYTHING else home so I could defray some of the cost of my flight and have spending money for my visit.  Turns out I grossly under-calculated my needs, in addition to forgetting to budget for some big expenses like my contribution to Chrissy's wedding gift, buying souvenirs to bring home ($80),  my trip to the allergist ($70), medication ($20), and all this visa crap ($80).  I already had to have my mom transfer money from my Bank of America account (which I don't have a debit card for and therefore cannot access in Korea) to my Wachovia account once, and after finding out I needed more money for visa crap tomorrow I had to call my dad to transfer more today.  SOOOO FRUSTRATED.  Oh and then there is that little thing called the GRE, which just makes me more stressed and gaaaaaaah.  Plus I just haven't been sleeping well this week, which never helps anything.  I am jealous of all my friends that talk about going home and taking long, luxurious naps when they leave camp.  I am running around like a chicken with my head cut off, stressed to the maxx!  It is looking like I'll probably be up packing and cleaning most of tomorrow night, so I'll be CRASHING on the plane.

Dragging Along!

The humidity in Korea has reached epic proportions.  Today it took my hair FOUR HOURS to dry.  Four. Hours.  That is crazy.  My hair is not that thick and generally dries pretty quickly...but not with this much moisture in the air.  The oppressive heat and humidity make me so tired; I just want to curl up on my bed in my air conditioned apartment and sleep.  Of course that is out of the question since I have so much to do this week. I can't believe that at this time next week (and in two weeks...and in THREE weeks) I'll be at home!  I really have to say that since I finalized the dates and bought my plane tickets I've been significantly more homesick than if you had taken a random sampling of days over the past year.  It also is probably due in part to the fact that I have a bunch of friends going through MAJOR life changes.  In the year that I've been gone I know four people that got engaged (Lindsay, Jenny, Morgan and Bruno), six people that got married (Heather, Kat, Sarah, Sara, Erica, Annie) and two people that had a baby (Heather, Sarah).  And those are just the people I am close enough to know the details for...there are COUNTLESS others I frequently Facebook stalk.  I swear, photos of diamond rings, white gowns and sonograms are a daily occurrence on my Facebook feed.  I know it is dumb, but it seems kind of crazy that while I'm on the other side of the world, things have changed so drastically for people I love back home.  It will be interesting to see how much of a culture shock it is to go back...when everyone around me is speaking English how will I choose who to eavesdrop on?!

Camp finished without a lot of fanfare last week and I didn't do much this weekend outside of studying and doing some laundry.  I had a really good group of kids and the people who ran the Cheondong Camp had it basically down to a science.  They said they wanted to see us all again for Winter Camp and I would go back there in a second.  On Friday, after the closing ceremony, the principal took us all out to lunch.  We got picked up by a couple of vans and taken a little ways out into a SLIGHTLY more rural area where the restaurant was located.  I stepped out of the van and came face to face with two tiny beagle puppies.  I almost started crying...holy crap I can't wait to see my dogs!  They were absolutely precious.  Overall I couldn't have asked for more out of my two-week camp experience.  The kids were fun, the classes were small so I got to know everyone, my co-teacher was effective and spoke English well, and the other NSETs were a good group of people.

My co-teacher, Ji Won, and I.  She is super pale and proud of it...she carries a parasol everywhere she goes.  Definitely a girly girl, but a lot of fun to work with.

Apple Class REPRESENT!  Hahaha.

Top: Ji Won, Helen, Joshua (yup), Julie, Kevin, James, and Tim

Bottom: Lim, Jack, Andy, Sunny, Kevin, Simon, and Me

Last night I was up late freaking out over GRE/grad school stuff so waking up this morning sucked, as predicted.  Once again I have a long commute.  It takes me about 15 minutes to walk to Gangdong metro station, then a 15 minute ride, and a 10 minute walk to Guhwon Elementary.  I miss the commute to Cheondong already!  This camp also runs later...I don't have to be at work until 9:40am, but I don't get to leave until 1:20pm.  And I don't get lunch.  Last week I had to be there at 8:40am, but I was done at noon every day and I was fed a delicious lunch before retiring to Holly's Coffee for some studying.  I will not be a camp snob.  I will not be a camp snob.  I will not be a camp snob.

Today we had an opening ceremony and it was in the auditorium which is in the basement of Guhwon (a HUGE elementary school).  At one point I looked over and I was HORRIFIED to see...a spricket.  Thankfully someone killed it with celerity.  (Nope, not with celery.)  I thought I left those devil creatures in Bowie?!  After the opening ceremony we did some ice breaker stuff for about 50 minutes, and then taught two of our "craft" classes where the kids are learning the song Lemon Tree and then making lemons with invisible ink messages on them.  I thought this project up and the connection was that the invisible ink was, obviously, lemon juice.  Somewhere along the line, however, Young Ah (my co-teacher at Guhwon) switched out the lemon juice with vinegar.  Our classroom smells like Easter eggs.  Oh well.  Thankfully we only do this project today and tomorrow, Wednesday is Sports Day, and then we switch to making fireworks with paint.  The kids were told to bring their own paint...so we'll see how that works.  It is hard to control the outcome when you don't control the materials!

After work I went over to Jamsil, grabbed some lunch, and then picked up my visa renewal paperwork from my school before going down to Samseong Medical Center to pick up the results of my medical check.  (I'm fine.  Hurrah.)  Tomorrow I have an appointment at immigration to get my visa and Alien Registration Card renewed/extended and then I'm meeting some people for a farewell dinner at Ashley's (a delicious wine and food buffet that the Cru went to last week for our farewell dinner).  Last Friday I met up with Ayzia briefly and we said our goodbyes.  It is strange to think that these people won't be such a part of my life anymore!  Thursday night we are having a get together at the wine buffet to celebrate Chrissy's impending nuptials in Thailand, and Friday night Julia is having a goodbye party on her rooftop.  Looking forward to the party.  Not looking forward to saying goodbye to one of my very favorite people I've met on this crazy adventure.

So this is my goodbye to Andie, Angie, Ayzia, Brigid, Candace, Dana I, Julia, Justin, Madeline, and Melissa,.  Safe travels, good memories and happy homecoming.