It is finally lushious spring!

In exciting news I am doing a temple stay during this long weekend on Monday night! It is about a 4 hour bus ride there so this technically can be called an adventure, right? The place is called Jirisan Hwaeomsa (sa means temple). One of my Korean friends helped me figure out the website (the English website wasn't working) and signed me up! I also am doing this all by myself so I think I can officially call it an adventure in anticipation. ^________^



This is a quick picture of the temple when I googled it. I don't want to look at too many photos of it because I think I want it to be a surprise! :)

It's a gloomy day outside, so how about I post some pretty pictures of spring! Like my mom, I looooove flowers. So...that's what you're going to get! Most of the pictures are from my walk to work. I'm very lucky to have such a beautiful 25 minute walk every afternoon!

Update. Stat. :)

Wow!

It turns out I am moving Saturday evening! The new guy at work (Ben) is moving into my apartment that night....they can't get John gone and me into the apartment fast enough, it seems like! It will give me a day to settle in on Sunday though so that will be nice. Tomorrow and Saturday morning will be jam packed with packing and organizing! The new guy seems nice, he was a little jet lagged when he came to the office this evening--and you know me, super perky and smiley. :D I hope I didn't scare him too badly! :)

I also decided to post some pictures since I've sadly neglected doing so for....almost my entirety of my stay here. I've been trying to center myself this week, changing my diet a little bit, reading some spirituality texts, and trying to release some guilt I've been harboring (thanks for helping me out Momma!). So, I will hopefully be on the fast track to getting organized, healthy, and happy around the time of this move. :) I know there will always be stress in life but instead of letting the "woe is me" attitude take over, I'm going to stay my cheerful-Jesse-self. :)

How about some random pictures from Jan-Feb-Mar! I'll add pictures from Patrick's visit in the next post. :)

Students from my 2-S2 class. :) This was in February right before about 5 of them leveled up (doesn't it sound like I'm in a video game?!) My class is still huge, I have more kids now (must remember to take more pictures of my newer classes).

These are students from my 2-P1 class. :) Don't they seem...err....sweet?!

Korean blizzard at the end of January...harrrr...!

This picture is from Alex's (pictured here) birthday celebration. To make a long story short, the BBQ chicken from the street vendor should not have spicy sauce added. My laughter at my friend's pain and torment ensued for the next 10 minutes. Also, I was able to capture this amazing photograph!

I took a trip to Myeongdong (a shopping district in Seoul) with LeAnn! It was really cool and had all kinds of shopping, tiny street vendors and random racks of belts, shoes, shirts, scarves, sunglasses, and sparkly bangles squashed between loads of people haggling and sifting through the mounds of items to find a hidden jewel. It was so fun to look and watch people as well as look all the different stores from around the world. (I picked up a couple of presumptuous sundresses at a Western store--my first time in a normal fitting room in nearly 5 months!)

We got hungry and stumbled into a side street with a cute restaurant wedged between a greasy spoon kinda place and dull eyed cigar smokers. They had different kinds of kimbop, sushi, and soup....decorated very uniquely! >.< What a find! My yummy "salad" kimbop. Mmmm, I'mma eachoo!

Work birthday cake, mmm! The nifty "happy birthday" candles were arranged by the lovely Heather and Monica (some of my Korean teacherbuddies!). Hehe, I swear they love me!

Birthday cake #2! This was given to me by my friend Karen for my birthday party...it's an ice cream(strawberry and chocolate) cake, my first one ever! I seriously want ice cream birthday cakes from here on out. From Korea. Stat. ;)

March is over, hello April!

It turns out I'm unable to get out of the country for my 4 day weekend, quite unhappy about it but I'll just do something in the country. We didn't know about our extra day off until all the airline tickets had already been eaten up by other Koreans. Apparently this 4 day weekend is super huge for them to travel. Sad panda.

Maybe I'll go down to Busan to the beach or do a 2 night stay at a temple somewhere...or the combination of the two?! That would be exciting. :)

Found some mold in my apartment. Okay, a lot of mold. My apt is practically infested in it and my boss doesn't understand that this is why I've had so many health problems during my stay here. Moving on Monday but I don't know if I'll get to stay in the apt for more than a month. Men trump women, even if they aren't Korean here (which I knew coming in but it seems moronic to make me move twice just because someone else wants the apt because of the "view").

I'm just happy I'm going to be healthy.

Started another health kick with my diet as of....yesterday, so I can't tell you how it's going so far yet. Ask me as of May 1st. :)

I'm going to be busy this weekend getting all my ducks in a row with getting packed and such this upcoming weekend! Work is a blur when I'm there, sooo busy all the time. That's a good thing in itself though in a way.

The weather goes back and forth between springy and below freezing, I just want to get outside one morning and not be chattering!


Things are beginning to bloom now though! I'll take more pictures this weekend of the pretty buds and tiny flowers starting to come out. :)

Off to work!

March 09

Believe it or not, the best way to sum up my past 2 months (other than the 2 week hiatus while I had a great visit with Patrick) that I've been ridiculously busy with nothing in particular.

Work has been all consuming at times. First it was intensives in January and the beginning of February, then we were catching up, then preparing for the Korean school year to begin in March…now it is nearing the end of March! Whoa! Things have been changing a lot! As I said, the Korean school year begins in March instead of Sept like the states so we started several new classes at my hagwon and had about 50 new students enrolled. O.o There are so many students in my classes now! I’m enjoying them now but it has taken about 3 weeks to adjust and get everything in order. I don’t like having my life revolve around being sick and my job but I guess that’s life!

I’ve been here almost 5 months and don’t imagine things are going to change too much more now though. Well, except for staff perhaps? We had 3 men leave, received 2 guys (friends from Orange County, Cali) to replace them and had an old teacher come back, then another teacher resigned at the end of February so he’s leaving at the end of next week. The replacement is a guy from Boise, Idaho and that's all we know!

In recent developments I may be taking over his apartment here very soon. I looked at it this morning before work and it’s much nicer than my apartment but I’m still trying to figure out whether I want to move or not.

Pros: fantastic location between Sunae and Sohyeon overlooking the park, walking path right out my doorstep, farther from work (so I don’t feel so sectioned off), right in town, close to my friends, more updated, more spacious, and more storage, building security, doorbell and camera for my front door (right now I have no way to know who is at my door or to look out of it), increased social life, close to transportation for the busses and subway, the doctor, etc.

Cons: I would have to pay 200,000won/month extra for rent, around 50,000won for extra utilities (building security, etc) adding up to around 2.1mil extra ($1.6G) over the next 7 months out of my paycheck. It seems pretty steep but it is much nicer and great location. Farther from work (I would get my exercise…yet monsoon season is coming up), and I’d have to figure out how to move (though I figure I can do it for around 30 bucks using a cab twice since I don’t have to move any furniture), closer to shopping boutiques = more temptation of extra shopping ventures, possibly nixing China (??)

That 2.1mil could be used to pay for my China/Japan trip. I feel a bit frivolous even considering taking the apartment (see economic crisis) but I really am tired of my tiny, old, odd-layout of an apartment stuck on a remote hill that no one ever visits me on. So far my friends and boyfriend think it would be a good idea for me to take it, for comfort and mental health sustenance. We shall see, I have to make a decision THIS WEEK. >.<

I have a 4-day weekend coming up at the beginning of May that I’m quite determined to get out of the country to do some exploring for! It will be 6 months at that point and starting the downward slope of my contract! That will kick off my traveling! I have been good about saving so far and want to either go to Japan or the Philippines for the long weekend. I don’t know if I’d go to the Philippines at a different time if I don’t go now but I remember stories of mom telling me it wasn’t so nice when she was there 7 or so years ago.

I’m going to Bali, Indonesia (I’m pretty sure) in July for one week of my vacation with Patrick when he flies out here again, then will take my second week of vacation to go to Cambodia or a joint Cambodia/Thailand trip in the fall after their monsoon season ends. After I get done with my contract is my possible China/Japan adventure I want to take a week or so to do. That will put me back in the states in early to mid November! The national holidays in Korea aren’t working in my favor this year, it just so happens most are falling on the weekends and you don’t get a Monday thrown in for the sake of a holiday here. So my only 4-day weekend I’m getting is the one in May so I really want to use it! Don’t worry; I’ll still have money saved Momma!

In other news, I’m almost 23! Whoa! I’ve been saying I’m Korean age 24 since January so I think I’ll transition well enough. I have had fun teasing Squish about being so much older than I am for a month and a half though (an archaic 26 compared to my current 22)! ;)

I will upload some pictures of what's been going on in my next post!

In conclusion, I think I've hit the homesick-ish stage but have decided that no matter whether I move or not, I'm going to make at least SOME changes in my life, the weather is supposidly warming up (though the clouds spat some snow at me while I was walking to work today), and it's almost time for spring and summer and beautiful weather!

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!

O-bam-a!

I stayed up to watch the inauguration on a school night! Oooh, I'm such a rebel (It came on at 2am for me).

It was good to see Obama become my new president (yes, he is personally mine) even though he did have to redo the process due to a glitch.

My students asked me if I hated "Bush-ee" and I told them no, I don't hate anyone, but I really really really like and support Obama!

They think it the name "Barbara Bush" is a complete crackup; "barbara" in Korean means "to stomp" so they love to say "Barbara Bush-ee" and stomp on the floor, laughing all the while. Silly Konglish humor!

So cheers to my country's new president: Barack Obama 01/20/09! It's going to be a long road for the USA to get back on track but it will happen! We'll working on living within our means.

Obama and I last October!

New Year Round 2

Happy New Year x2!

Lunar New Year is this weekend so I have a lovely 4 day weekend; my last public holiday until April or May. My weiguk friends are headed to China tomorrow (Saturday) morning but I didn't figure I could swing it with intensives, finances, etc. Instead I'm going to relax, catch up on some hobbies, organization, and spending time with my Korean girlfriends from work (I am soooo lucky to have them at my school--I love my Korean coworkers! They are the sweetest women and I have created very good and unique friendships with several of them. We are expecting 2 new teachers at school at the end of February. Harry (my boss) said today that they would be "perfect" for me since they are men around my age--I'm already taken though Harry!

Work has been a bit crazy this month, as expected. 9 hour days stretching up to 13 hour days...yucky. This was the last full week! Intensives won't really be over until the end of the first week of February. I found out I had a tiny bump in pay so that's nice; I've been working really hard for it! I'm still saving and budgeting well, to those of you that may be worried (Mom, Paul, Granddaddy).

I have started buying little things to make my apartment more homey...I figure if I'm going to be here for the next 10 months why live bare-bones when I can spend 50 or 100 bucks little by little and get some things that will make me happy...So far I have bought 2 pretty dishes, a dish drying rack, new soap container, a kettle, nice little hooks to put up around my apartment, a yoga mat, hat/scarf bin etc. They are silly but make me feel better and more organized. My next trip out I will be getting the laundry bin I've had my eye on. I found a store that's along the lines of a Korean Dollar General which has helped get more bang for my...won!

The weather was nice yesterday, around 42 degrees but dropped back down bitterly today again. It is currently 5 degrees outside and I have no idea what the wind chill is. I want the weather to get warmer again so I can go exploring!

I'm FINALLY getting a Korean cell phone in 5 days! I have been looking for a used one because I want to pay as I go so I don't have to sign a contract and pay $500 for a new phone plus deposit of $100. The area I live in is smaller so they have either been too expensive even used or in bad condition. Christine from work has a friend who is getting a new phone and I'm buying his old one. I'm glad, it's not mine until next Wednesday but I won't have to go hunting in Seoul to find a good deal on one. :)

I am having my first visitor soon; Patrick bought his plane ticket! I woke up to the message "I have a surprise for you in your email" the other morning. He will officially be here on February 20th at 9:10pm!

OH! My hair has been lopped off. Significantly. Right now I have a love-hate relationship with it and 3 weeks later am still trying to figure out exactly how to style it. It's much higher maintenance than what I'm used to. The combination of intensives and my new haircut have spurred a dropoff in pictures I have taken so I only have photos of when I first had it cut and styled. The experience of getting my hair cut was really funny, I just am not used to having hair this short--not since middle school! There are layers up to the tops of my ears and about 6-8 inches was taken off the bottom....it's more like a shag cut than layers in my mind, though. Here's of it cute and curled....something that won't ever happen to this level of professionalism again!

New hairs!

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