Hello February!

Intensives are almost over, only 2 more days of my extraordinarily long work days left! Phew! As is the Korean way, I still am not sure what my schedule is going to be on Wednesday...which will make preparations even more hectic on Tuesday evening. :) Hopefully the new schedule will be out on Monday but I can only cross my fingers right now.

Intensives are rough but doable. I did have a few cups of coffee now and then but they were more for comfort and a thrill than for necessity of the caffeine. I won't have to do intensives again until August which makes me smile. I'll be able to have a week of vacation before that time which is exciting, too!

I went to a casino last night for my first time ever and gambled! It actually is pretty close to where I live, only about 40 minutes on the subway inside the big hotel in COEX. It was quite pretty with lots of neon rainbow lights on the ceiling and walls but was not what I was expecting. No loud sounds or lots of people screaming and laughing, much more hushed and none of the slot machines made any noise. I grew comfortable with this atmosphere after a little bit and felt a little overdressed at first but hey, it was my first time! We played roulette which I find maddening but fun. I decided I would only bet 20,000won that night (around $18 with the exchange rate right now but still $20 worth in Korea) since it was my first time and didn't really know what I was doing. I'd be up and down but proceeded to lose more (as is the game). There was free food and drinks but our food didn't get ordered the first time. I crashed into a bloodsugar headache that didn't feel too well and wasn't cured by my little kiwi fruit drink. I started feeling better after my food finally came (3 hours after we arrived) but my betting had suffered (haha, at least that's what I'll blame it on, yeah?).

5 of my friends and I went so we had a whole sitting side of the table to ourselves. I felt very important having a sitting position and it made me feel more comfortable without some hardcore gamblers surrounding me or having to stand and not really have a good view or be able to relax. Yes I had a petty amount of chips but I had a good experience which meant the world to me! It was fun watching and talking with people around the casino. There were blackjack tables where people were betting thousands of dollars worth (millions of won ooh, ahhh), foreigners from China and Thailand, India, Japan, the states, all over.

We sat at the 1,000won minimum bet roulette table even though there were some people playing with chips that equalled up to about a grand each at the surrounding tables. WOW! There was a guy at the table next to us who literally had my entire college tuition sitting in front of him...an proceeded to lose most of it as the night wore on.

I lost 14,000won overall but I had a really good time! That is my exciting story from the weekend! Now I'm just doing laundry and cleaning up my apartment to get ready for the work week ahead of me!

I love you momma, miss you and hope you're feeling okay!