TIK

I'm officially getting settled into my life here. I'm starting to feel like I'm actually living here. I feel more at home in my apartment. I'm cooking almost everyday so that's a lot more comforting (and economical). I even made pinonates (these fried cookies that my grandma taught me how to make when i was little) and all the teachers at my school, especially the Korean teachers loved them. I'm starting to make friends more. Overall, this is great.

Last monday i got my cel phone. Yup, I'm officially reachable people. If anyone needs to - or wants to - call me the Korean country code is 82 and my cel number is 010-5118-3143. So in order to get my cel phone, Kate, one of the other Korean teachers went with me, since no one in the phone store spoke any english, and she totally ended up hooking me up. I was able to get a cel contract rather than a prepaid and I only had to pay W20,000 (about $21) for a brand new cel because she set it up under her name rather than under mine. She saved me over $150. I love her. I told her since she was so nice to me I wanted to treat her to dinner and on tuesday we went out to get something called "samgyubsal." It was basically like pork meat that you cook in front of you on this big hot plate type thing. There were a lot of really good side dishes. Yummy! And we just got to hang out and talk for hours. After a little while her friend James came and joined us. (It was really funny because before he got there she tells me "Susy, James is like playboy and he will like you. You are very pretty. Be careful" She's so cute.) But we just sat there and talked until like 11PM. Then by the time we left the buses had stopped running and James was nice enough to drive us back to where I live, rather than making me take a taxi. It was ridiculous though because i live on this teeny, tiny alleyway which seems unmaneuverble in a car, especially when there are cars already parked on it, but i think James wanted to show off and he just barreled on through. Lol. I seriously was terrified he was going to scratch up his car, but it was fine.

Last week we also had to start teaching our classes Christmas carols. Two of my classes are singing "Jingle Bell Rock" which is, amazingly enough, the one song that my normally tone-deaf self can actually carry a tune to. My other two classes are singing "Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer." The classes doing "Jingle Bell Rock" are doing really well. My Playground 4 class (my lower level english students) are so great. There's a part in the song, after the line "In the frosty air" that you kind of have to hold for like 2 counts. Well they weren't getting it so I was trying to teach them to snap their finger and then I heard this loud clicking noise. This one kid named Eric, who is normally very uncooperative, can click his tongue super loud, so I asked him if he could do it twice fast and so now he has a little mini solo. Its so funny cuz now he's totally into it. And it makes the whole thing hilarious. I can't not laugh when they do it. :-)

On Thursday I went downtown with Jenny since I didn't have any classes until 4PM. She took me to some cool thrift stores and we found some neat stuff. There was one store that we found this amazing sweater-dress thing. It's knitted and its gorgeous. The guy only wanted W20,000 for it so we both tried it on. Jenny didn't really like it, but I really, really loved it. Only, as I'm trying it on, the Korean guys at the store started telling me to suck in my stomach. I was like "WTF??" Apparently people here give you their opinion, whether or not it polite, and whether or not you ask for it. And supposedly if they think something looks bad on you they won't let you buy it. That's just messed up. Then, for some reason, they started calling me Natalie Portman. I don't think I look a thing like Natalie Portman (wish i did) but apparently to these guys I was a fat Natalie Portman. Great...

Friday was great cuz my friend Jure, from orientation, was coming to visit. He got in at like 10 so we went and got some Galbi near where my school building is and then just chilled at home. Saturday, was really cold outside, so we just vegged out and watched a movie. He had never seen "The Devil's Advocate" so I felt he was missing out and should watch it. Now he thinks I have really weird, morbid taste in movies. Oh well, I am kinda weird, but honestly, Al Pacino playing the devil, it doesn't get much better than that. We also made pinonates, which he totally doubted. Everyone has doubts about my cookies but they always eat their works (and a bunch of my cookies). Hee hee. Saturday evening, Jure was nice enough to let me and Liz use his Costco card to buy food. We took a taxi (which was an ordeal all its own since the first taxi driver let us get in his cab and drove off before he told us he didn't know where Costco was) instead of taking the bus cuz I did not want to be responsible for getting us lost in some random area of Daegu. But it all worked out. And I finally was able to buy meat for a reasonable price. It's definitely not as good as in the states but at least its affordable. So I got chicken and pork and beef. YAY!! Then Sunday we headed downtown and just wandered for a little while.

-----Jure and I in Downtown Daegu.

It was rather enterntaining looking at all the wacky Korea stuff. Sometime you just gotta laugh and (as Jenny taught me) say "TIK" - This Is Korea.
----- what??????


We did get to eat some yummy ribs though. I will also admit that my horrible sense of direction was at it again. And I got us a little lost and made us walk like 4 extra block in a circle. I know, I know I'm an airhead sometimes. But as Susa always says: if you're looking for Susy in a crowd of people look for the most oblivious one and that will be her. So alas, that is me. My sister is wise beyond her years. Lol!

Today was back to the grind. Classes went well. I got to talk to my mom and Tati and Randy (skype kicks ass) from home now that I have internet and I added all the pictures to this blog. Overall a productive day, except I didn't do my lesson planning, and I didn't do my dishes (what else is new?), and its 4AM and I'm not asleep. Oh well, let me live in my little cocoon of positivity and denial.

Soju is the Devil!

That's my thesis statement for this blog. Soju is the devil! For those of you not familiar with it, Soju is the most popular Korean liquor. It comes in these very recognizable little green bottles (which I now cringe at the sight of) and although it only contains like 20% alcohol it has the capacity to completely knock you on your ass. Like quick.

My tale begins on Friday night when I was invited to go out for Stella's birthday. Stella is the Korean girl that Nate (one of the other foreign teachers) is dating. She's a really sweet girl and we really hit it off last week at the Taco party. (Btw, as a random tangent: I think its so funny that all the girls here think its absolutely fabulous that I was a bartender. They all say "oh like in coyote ugly!" and they think its so cool). So it ended up being just Nate, Liz and I heading downtown to meet up with Stella and her best friend Alice - who teaches Korean at the YMCA on Saturdays so I think in January I'm going to take her class ;-). After grabbing some food, we hung out at this random bar for a while. I just had some beer and some shrimp crackers (yummy). Then after we left there we went to a place called "Fish and Grill" or "Passion Grill" I'm not sure, the letters were in Korean and I really don't remember the name.
-----This was pre-drunkenness. The 5 of us at Pish and Grill (me, Liz, Alice, Stella and Nate)

When we got there they ordered pitchers of something called a Soju Cocktail. Ok, so now I need to remind everyone that when I was in Seoul I tried Soju but I just tried it as a shot so I really didn't like it at all. Well, the Soju cocktail that they ordered was Apple-raspberry (I think?) and it was sooooooo yummy. Like deceptively yummy. And as if it wasn't bad enough they added one or two additional bottles of Soju to each pitcher of the cocktail. The Korean drinking glasses are these really cute little saucer-type-shot glasses, so inevitably we started playing a drinking game and got completely plastered. To add to the hi-jinks, this restaurant only had what are the common type of public toilet in Korea... the squatter toilet. Oh as I got more drunk the experience got funnier and funnier.

-----The squatter toilet in all its (disgusting glory).

Anyways, we were playing a Korean drinking game called "ddalgi" which is the Korean word for strawberry. The way the game works is: you slap the table, then clap your hands, then stick up your right thumb and then your left thumb. You're supposed to say "ddalgi" once for the first person, then twice for the next person and so on. It's not too easy to describe but really funny to play, especially the more drunk you get. I'm definitely taking this one back to the states with me. Anyways, I sucked at this game. I was horrible. They started calling me "the black hole" because everytime it came back to me the game would stop and we'd have to start over. I decided I didn't want to be the only one drinking so I started to combine a little "circle of death" in there so I started making up rules like when I drink, Nate has to drink (yup I was responsible for getting him drunk).

Well after a while, 3 pitchers of cocktail and about 8 bottles of Soju we were all DRUNK (ohmygod the pictures are hilarious)!!! So, Nate started throwing up as soon as we left the restaurant. Then we get into a club and Nate is in the girls bathroom throwing up. Liz took care of him for a while and Stella, Alice and I went downstair to dance for a bit, but since we were all drunk too we decided to leave. So Stella and I carried Nate to a taxi (and there are a pictures of all of this).
----- Samples of the drunkenness:

-----Sample #1: Me and Nate thinking that something is hilarious, apparently.
-----Sample #2: Yes, he's throwing up.
-----Sample #3: I think I thought I was dancing beautifully... not so much.
----- Sample #4: Stella and I carrying Nate to the taxis.

Well at this point I was doing fine. Just fine. Until I got in the taxi, then the buildings started whizzing by and I could not deal. So I stuck my head out the window (yes, like a dog) and started throwing up. I regret to inform that I vomitted all over the side of a Korean taxi. We finally got home and Liz and I carried Nate to his place and then I stumbled to my apartment. I have not gotten that drunk very often. But it took me less than three weeks in Korea to do it. An accomplishment as far as I'm concerned.

And the answer is yes I was very hung over on Saturday. I didn't manage to crawl out of bed until like 5PM and my stomach hated me all day. So that was my weekend (oh and I cleaned more mold out of my apartment all day sunday, but that is less exciting than the drinking wackiness of Friday night).

De-dumpifying my apartment.

Ok I'm admitting it. They say that's the first step right? My apartment is a dump. The whole thing is mostly pink (and since I'm not a pink kind of girl this is not a great big plus) with the piece de resistance being an entirely - like floors, walls, counter, cabinet, all of it - Pepto Bismol pink bathroom that is always cold and horrible. Plus its what they call a wet room which means there is no separate shower area, you are just supposed to take a shower in the middle of the room where there is a drain. Nice huh? Additionally, the floor mat is all lumpy and lifted. There's no hot water. Apparently if I open the water so that its just at like 30% strength (my school manager's words not mine) then I can get hot water. We'll see tonight cuz I'm sick and tired of cold showers in 20 degree weather. And to top it all off, the walls were full of mold when I moved in. Despite all this I am determined to make it my own homey little place for the next year. I've made sure its all clean. Today my school's manager went and cleaned it up with mold killer??? I'm getting internet hooked up there and I think in the summer the bathroom won't be so miserable. In all seriousness, Cuba is way worse, as far as bathroom and the hot water situation is concerned, and I don't really hate it there. Which makes me think that the biggest contributor is the cold weather.Speaking of which. Today is absolutely freezing. Like frigid cold. Since Daegu is completely surrounded by mountains it becomes a freezer in the winter and an oven in the summer. I asked the academic director why the weather was so bad and she said "because its Daegu." Poetic, I thought. I am beginning to like the city more though. Wandering through downtown is fun and full of interesting people. I love to people watch there. The stores are all so cute. Just this sunday I was walking through some really shady back alleys that I found. It was cool. Just little Korean ladies selling stuff. Then I walked into one shop and the lady made me sit down and have tea with her. They just kept speaking in Korean and looking at me quizzically. But most importantly I was able to buy a good space heater for \27,000 won.

Now that I think of it I forgot to mention that this Saturday was a lot of fun. Nate and David (two of the other teachers) decided to have a Taco Party (a mexican-ish themed pot luck) and so we all got together and made some stuff. I made chilli although, as any of you that have had my chilli will totally back me up, i make some excellent chilli but with the lack of proper ingredients it just wasn't up to par. The party itself was great. We mostly just hung out and talked. I met Stella, the Korean girl that Nate is talking to, and she's really cool. We talked a lot and I think she's my first official Korean friend. This saturday is her birthday and we're all supposed to go out. She also promised to take me salsa dancing. Imagine me actually finding a decent latin club in South Korea. That would be soooo kick ass. After a while (as people got more drunk) we started dancing. Somehow I got talked into doing my horrible immitation of the worm (and they all laughed) but then I did that really cool backroll thing I can do - most people will have no idea what I'm talking about - and everyone was really impressed. I also tried to teach them bad phrases in Spanish. Gabriel (the other teacher that's from Canada but is actually Uruguayan) is dating a Korean woman named Uni. I taught her how to say "vete pal carajo" and he got so mad at me. He pulled her away and said we were bad influences. Overall a very fun night.Teaching is also getting better. The students are getting to know me more and I'm trying to do fun activities for them. Just yesterday I made a tic-tac-toe game that incorporated the lesson. They had to use the right kind of sentence to get the box. They really liked it. Today I got to teach more kindergarten kids. They are sooo freaking adorable. Right now I need to go home (to my dumpy little apartment), make myself some dinner and try to do my lesson plans for tomorrow.
PS: As soon as I get internet I'll try to post some pictures that I've taken.

Here we go: David took some cool, creative pictures at the Taco Party.

----- Hanging out with Stella at the party.
-----Our little collection. We're so bad.
----- The black and white pic.
-----My Fav...

My days in Seoul.

So I haven't really had any internet access for the last few days because I was up in Seoul - the capital city - from Monday to Wednesday for Orientation. It was a really great experience, I have to say. The workshops were really informative and now I feel so much more prepared. Plus the guy that was directing the orientation was so into it that you can't help but feel inspired. Today I taught my first classes and they went pretty well I thought. I think once I build a rapor with the students it will actually get a lot better. But I'm skipping a lot, so...
On monday I woke up at 6AM and Mr. Kim the manager at the school took me to the train station. When I got to Seoul I even got on the right subway... going in the wrong direction. Yea the blonde is coming out again. So I was a little bit late the first day but what can you expect really?

-----The beautiful view from the YBM building in Seoul.

For lunch I went out to eat with the other people at orientation. I actually got to know them a little bit and they are some really cool people. There's Jessica (a pretty blonde girl from Minnesota), Brendan (a really mellow, fun, nice guy who also happens to teach in Daegu with me, so I have a new friend in Daegu as well, yay), Adam (a really funny Canadian who got piss/vomit everywhere drunk on soju the first night we were there), James (a cute and really sarcastic brit who would totally get sooooo much ass if he went anywhere in the US), Jure (a big Croatian guy who is super nice and sweet but it's really funny cuz i feel like I'm 5 when i stand next to him), Sam (the funniest/sarcastic/overly verbal/wise-ass english major ever), Dominic (a really thin nice guy from Boston), Hunter (a gay fashion designer from Texas), Matt (a really quiet British guy), and Marnie (a girl from Canada who decided that people eat Guinea pigs in Cuba...ok random). So these were my orientation people.

----- Orientation people at dinner (from left to right: James, Matt, Jessica, Hunter, Jure, Brendan, Dominic, Adam [see the Soju?], and Sam).

----- Me with Sam (the funny Texan) and James (the Brit).

-----Me and Jure (the Croatian).
----- Me with Brendan, the other Daegu teacher (he made sure I didn't get lost in Seoul).
-----Brendan doing his happy dance cuz I actually told him he was right (those of you who know me, know how rare that is).

The first night we all went out to eat and drink together. Mostly I drank beer. I swear I'm gonna be a beer drinker before I leave here because I tried Soju and it tastes like sweet ass water. YUCK! So beer it is. Then on the second night we all we all went out to eat again and it was actually pretty funny cuz we went to a place with no pictures and an all korean menu so we just pointet at stuff on the menu. We got something called "cajun chicken" yea it was definitely breaded fried chicken with honey mustard sauce on it on top of some salad???? I don't get it. Then after that I mostly hung out with Brendan, Jure and Adam. We went walking along this really pretty area that was this river that they had built over and then they dug it up again and made it all pretty. It was really nice. I just didn't end up going to sleep until late so...
-----Me sitting by the pretty river in Seoul.
-----They're so goofy. I think they were trying to be turtle??? (Adam, Brendan, and Jure)
-----Brendan... umm... yea. You gotta love it.

Wednesday I totally woke up late. The guy from the front desk didn't call me until 9:30 and then I realized I should have packed my stuff to check out. So I got to the class late. So we had some class presentations in the morning. And then after I got my stuff and I went to eat with everyone else at a traditional Korean place. It was pretty good. I had Bulgogi again, that seems to be my safe bet as far as food is concerned. My train went back to Daegu at 3:00. So Mr. Kim picked me up again. We went over to the school and he told me my stuff was already at the apartment so I waited for David and Nathan to show me to the apartment (since David still had some stuff there anyway).
I will now take the opportunity to say that David had painted me a grim picture of what the apartment was like. I pictured a horrible, bug infested, hell hole. I think he did it on purpose so that what I imagined would be so bad that the reality would not compare. The truth is that it was absolutely filthy, but that's the way every apartment that was formerly inhabited by a guy has been like in my experience. I immediately got to cleaning and moving around furniture (the flow of energy was horrible). I'm not like a feng shui expert or anything but if a room is set up wrong it can be really bad and it puts me in a bad mood. So I fixed it and it looks a whole lot better now. I swept everywhere, I even lifted up the mattress and the bed supports and swept under the bed which I don't think had been cleaned in years since it had food and socks and papers and all sorts of shit down there. Then when I moved the TV unit I discovered that there was a huge infestation of mold growing on the wall. It was really bad. So I got worried about how the hell I was going to explain mold in Korean but luckily in the morning Mr. Kim went by to introduce me to the landlady (who seems very nice and she kept saying how pretty I was) and when they saw it they immediately realized how bad it was. So they ripped out the wall paper on that part of the wall and tomorrow they are supposed to go in the morning to fix it. We'll see. But so far they're being very cooperative and Mr. Kim is also going to get me a new comforter and pillow. Now I need to get back to the apartment and try clean some more and do some lesson planning for tomorrow.

Random side note: So when I got to my school this morning there was a huge box waiting for me and what should it be but like 20 fruit roll ups boxes. I was sooooo excited. I've already eaten 4 but I need to make them last. Thank you Randy!!

Better Day.

Today was the first (hopefully of many) good day(s) I've had in Korea. In the morning David (one of the other teachers) came by to get me because he had promised to show me a cool tea house in Downtown Daegu. I took the bus for the first time, an overall not unenjoyable experience as it wasn't too crowded, and then we wandered around downtown for most of the day. We went to the "bad" part of town which is where a lot of the southeast asian immigrants are with their cheap wares. It's awesome. I love it there. Piles of used - cool - clothing for 3000 won apiece (that's like $3). Then we went to the tea house which was one of the neatest places. It smelled so good and I got to have something called chrysanthemum tea. Then afterwards I got to keep the flowers. I'm going to try to dry them tonight and put them in my journal. We just sat in the yummy-smelling tea house for a few hours and chatted and read. It was really nice.

-----The yummy things at the tea house. Those are the flowers on the right from my tea.

After that we wandered some more. We saw some really cool graffiti all over downtown Daegu.

-----What do you guys think??

Then David took me to what he calls the "ghetto market." It was one of those markets you expect to see in Asian countries. With barrels of cool things that you can't really identify. Piles of chiles that would probably melt your eyeballs if you made the mistake of touching one and then rubbing your eye. Buckets of live eels (which the lady obligingly poked at to make them go crazy for my amusement). More fish than you can possibly imagine. And of course, endless displays of things you could buy at the dollar store - be nice this is their home country. I really liked it there. I think I'll try to go back and buy random things once I have an apartment to take them to.

-----The piles of chiles. -----Endless baskets of spices and stuff.
-----The EELS!

After a while David decided to leave but I decided to stick around and explore some more on my own. This was one of those good idea/bad idea things because left to my own devices I (inevitably) went shopping, which I'm definitely not supposed to do since I don't make any money until the 8th of January. But I think I needed a small, celebratory, welcome-to-korea, little shopping trip to lift me out of the existential funk I'd been in. And you know what? It totally worked. I ended up getting 3 pairs of shoes (fun patent leather brown boots, super cute flats, and a pair of little school marm looking lace up shoes that I've been wanting forever - which also happened to be the first time I haggled in korea, they went from 30000W to 23000W, so yay!) and I also got some leggins, which are so in here, and also a beautiful ivory coat. I love it!
I will now transition from that into saying that I LOVE the way people dress here. Especially in Daegu, which is like the fashion capital of Korea. I've decided I'm just going to start taking pictures of the way that the girls are dressed and posting them up for inspiration because I seriously am loving it. There's a lot of funky layering. Not crazy harajuku girl funkiness either. It's more toned down and girly. Anyways, I like it a lot. And the shoes here... Let's not even go there.

-----Here are the shoes.

----- I need some help.

-----Tati, you need to help me decide which kind I want.

Additionally, on the food front. Things are definitely looking much better. Today I had Tonkatsu for lunch (japanese fried pork) with the best side dishes i've had since coming here. Then I bought some candy off a street vendor. Then I found a guy that sold fried boniato strips (how great is that???) at his cart. And for dinner I also ate food from another street vendor. A really sweet old lady had some of these awesome shish-kebabs. Yummy! And I ate like 4 of them for under $4. That's pretty cool.

-----Here's the sweet old lady that gave me yummy food and was kind enough to point out which sauce was yummy and would not burn off my tongue.

So yea. That was my day. Oh and I managed to take the bus back from downtown to suseong-gu (my area of town) all by myself. Today was definitely a better day. And now tomorrow morning I head off to Seoul for training. It should be fun.

Mission Accomplished

I found food. I did the whole pointing at a picture thing but this time it actually worked. I ate some things that were like dumplings. I guess more like japanese gyoza but they were pretty good. So now I am not nearly as cranky and I can head back to my motel and get some rest. That is good.

I need FOOD!!!!

So yea. I am now totally having flashbacks of all those psych classes where we discussed Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Ignoring the fact that I'm a total nerd referencing Psych 101. I think we seriously underestimate the necessity (and frustration that comes along with) not being able to get food. I've been in Korea for 4 days now and I have not really (not at all) mastered the art of ordering Korean food. I really thought this would be the easy part people.
Right now I'm sitting in a PC Bang (and internet cafe, but I think the Korean name is funnier), starving, posting about how annoyed I am about the fact that I'm starving but still refusing to get up and do something about it because of the inevitable frustration that will come from going out (in the cold) and trying to get someone to understand that I just want a dish that has some meat in it. I'm a freaking carnivore here, most of Korea's dishes are mostly meat dishes. You would think it would be simple. Its not. This morning I pointed to a picture of a stew with some seafood stuff in it. It gets to my table and all I got is noodles and veggies. Where was the error in translation. I pointed to a picture. Ok forget it. I'm done ranting. I'm heading out to hunt down some food (at this point it might be easier for them to drop me in the middle of the woods with a makeshift spear a la Lord of the Flies... piggy anyone?). Jeez. I'm horrible. That's it. Hunger has turned me into a cannibal.
I think once I move into my apartment and I have a kitchen things will be a lot easier. Next wednesday. Wish me luck!

Korea...First Impressions

I'm officially in Korea now. It's very different. To say the least. I now realize how spoiled i was by doing my study abroad in spain where i never struggled with ordering food, or finding my way around or just basically being there. The actually city is very nice and its pronounced Taegu, not Daegu, because as i discovered at the airport they will look at you like you're crazy if you pronounce the d. I can see mountains if i walk just a few blocks from my hotel. So that's amazing. The people have been very nice to me, especially the other teachers (both korean and western) at the school. I haven't really gotten into the grove of everything and i'm not yet feeling entirely comfortable. More than anything the difficult parts have been missing people and feeling so out of place. I'm really hoping that that will end soon because i feel totally uninspired. I haven't even started taking pictures, which is so not like me.
Additionally, I still haven't gotten to move into my apartment, I actually won't be until next wednesday. I'll be spending this weekend holed up in the little motel they put me up in, then on monday I take a train to seoul (for orientation) and then when i get back from seoul on wednesday i move into my apartment and officially begin teaching on thursday November 29th. I'm a little nervous because I feel like I have no idea what I'm doing. I think once i get into the grove of things and i start being able to explore more i'll feel more comfortable. In hindsight i wish i hadn't arrived here at the beginning of winter because considering how much of a weinie i am for the cold it has (so far) detered me from going crazy and just wandering around. This weekend I think that I'm going to just bundle up and try to venture downtown. Jenny, the other American girl, who has been sooo incredibly helpful and sweet, drew me a little map and gave me some directions (since she'll be out of town this weekend) so we'll see what happens.
I'm having to use the internet at the school so I haven't been able to write very consistently but once i set up my internet it should be better. I haven't even gotten to discuss all the things about my trip. Here goes: My flight over here was nice. I sat next to a fun and interesting guy named Tom so it wasn't too boring being stuck on a plane for 15 hours. Navigating the Seoul airport was not so fun being harrassed by all the taxi driver who saw my face and figured "here's a chump" and then me being an airhead put the baggage on the cart incorrectly so it kept falling off. When i got to daegu mr. kim, the school's director picked me up and took me by the school (to call my mom) and then to the hotel (which is funny in itself because i don't really think its an entirely reputable hotel. case in point: when i turned on the tv what should i find but korean porn). Anyways, I've spent the past two days observing a lot of classes and meeting everyone. After my first day of observation some of the other Western teachers invited me to go with them to a sauna so I had an interesting experience at a korean bathhouse/sauna (so much nakedness). It was a funny way to introduce myself to my fellow teachers. Like "Hello. Here I am. I'm naked." The actual sauna was this amazing room that felt more like a tomb. Its this infinitely tall, black room that when you look up it looks like you're soooo far underground. It was strange sensation. And it was also like 80 degrees celcius which made it hella freaking hot. Then when you weren;t trying to boil yourself you could fall asleep while using a piece of two by four for a pillow. LIke i said... interesting.
Yesterday on thanksgiving i didn't really do much. My stomach was being a little weird and also i was feeling pretty lonely. I think i underestimated how lonely i would feel on a day when i normally sit around with my family and eat my dad's awesome food. Once i have my own kitchen and start to cook things may be better. Plus since i actually cook, some of the other teachers may want to come visit and i won't be so lonely all the time. My hotel room (aka the korean porn palace) is a a little depressing. Although the bed itself is awesome because it is the room's heater. Like rather than have a heater, the bed itself has a control that you turn up to the desired temperature and then when you lay in it, its so warm and cozy. Tonight I think I'm going to hang out with Jenny (the other American girl) for a little while and maybe practice learning some korean, so that may be fun. Well, I'll write a lot more later.

Two random side notes: My new official name is Susy teacher. Although if it sounds more like sushi teechr. Cute.. i thought so. And also yesterday i got super excited because David, the teacher that I'll be replacing told me that one of the kids that he teaches is reading the harry potter books and he had me quiz him yesterday on the first book. It made me so happy. I am such a nerd. :-)

Gone (almost)

I can't sleep. I'm hours away from leaving to Korea and I'm exhausted... and wide awake. How does that work? All my things are packed (at least all the ones I could think of) and I've been so stressed that I haven't even had time to deal with the emotional issues surrounding my leaving.
I got to have an amazing weekend with my loves down in Miami and up in DC. In a nutshell: Clubing at Suite til 4, 30 minutes of sleep, almost missing my flight to DC, yummy thai food, late night airport pickup straight to indebleu, Johnny Rockets, snuggling, more yummy thai food, H&M, dancing on the bar at Citron, more cuddling, "it kinda has a mind of its own" (LOL), reluctant touristy pics, ZARA, paparazzi pics, yummy cuban food, by the hour, hip hop class, (random) monday on south beach, Bed (not the cama the club), new - very short - hair, spending quality time, loveyness, yumminess and crying. That was my weekend/week beginning. I'm going to miss snuglling with my titi and diva but I got to enjoy it all weekend. I'm definitely going to miss all the new things that have come into my life recently (a few very significant ones come to mind ;-) at the moment). They've helped me to see thing in a new and interesting and amazing and full-of-possibility-way so I've been enjoying it as much as I can. I was supposed to go to Gainesville but I couldn't and I'm still really sorry there are some people I did not get to spend any time with before leaving but there's been so much to do. So then I came up to Tampa in order to get things done and I proceeded to get sick. Like SICK. I had a fever and I felt like shit. All of it. So all the preparations for my trip ended up being last minute. As always.
But now the time is almost here. I'm going to miss everyone so much. I did a fair bit of crying when i was leaving Miami. I imagine the waterworks will come at the airport. So now I am off...

Going, going, going

I would like to start off by saying (and this goes completely against my gypsy nature, but anyway) I am so annoyed by moving. I was up until 3:30 AM packing everything up and I don't even really know how but I got it all done. Keep in mind that this will be the 7th time - yes seven, siete, chil - that I move in a period of 2 years. Mind you I'm counting the moving of Colin's stuff to DC because I drove the whole way and lifted and was injured and dealt with the military base personnel looking at me like i was crazy (lol), so it counts even though I wasn't moving my stuff. But still...That is ridiculous!! On the plus side I've gotten so efficient at setting up my apartment and at packing that I got it all done within the span of 3 days (thanks to my mami for doing the kitchen, and randy for having the patience to sit in my closet with me and go through my billion articles of clothing). So now its just sitting there in piles and this afternoon a few of the world electric people are going to come and help me (at Randy's behest of course) to get it to the storage place and to my mom's. I'm thinking that since there will be 5 of us there we can totally knock it out in about 2 hours which will totally help to diminish the annoying-ness of the whole thing.
So now we're officially at t-minus: 11 days before I leave to Korea. Moving out of my apartment makes the whole thing seem much more real. The truth is that it hasn't hit me yet that I'll actually be gone for a whole year. I feel like that has been mostly due to the fact that I've been stressed out and overwhelmed by all the things I have to do but now that a lot of those things are getting accomplished it's starting to seep in and the butterflies will be coming soon.
On top of everything, my itinerary for the next week and a half is insane (and even that's putting it mildly). Tomorrow (thursday) is my last day at work, immediately after work I leave to Miami, and I'll be spending the night there (and hopefully partying a little). Then I fly out to DC in the morning (thanks to my honeys for a great birthday gift although it will be incomplete without kristi) and we'll be in DC (again, hopefully partying it up) until Monday, well I'll be there til monday morning. Then I get back to Miami Monday afternoon and I'll be there until tuesday night or wednesday morning at which point I will drive straight to gainesville to spend a little time with Daniel, Jesse, and Katoya, Jose and Gabrielle (the cutest baby on earth). On thursday I drive back to Tampa and attempt to finish getting my bags ready, spend time with my family and friends over the weekend and try to relax because... on monday I have to be at the airport at 5AM, my flight leaves at 8, I connect in ATL, fly for 14 hours, arrive at Incheon airport outside Seoul, connect to another flight for Daegu and finally arrive at my final destination at 9PM (local time) on TUESDAY. So 36 hours will have passed and I will have been traveling for 24 hours straight. It makes me tired just typing it.
We'll see how I do...

The beginning...

I wasn't sure where to start this blog, and going into the whole story is tedious and unnecessary for most of the people that will probably read it, so I’ll just say that I’m very excited about moving to South Korea for a year to teach English and ignore the general reaction which seems to be “Korea… why?”
At this time: T minus 18 days. I am mostly overwhelmed by the immensity of all the things I have yet to do for my trip. I am currently still on the lookout for my motivation to get my apartment all packed up so I can go ahead and move out already. If anyone finds it please let me know. For right now I’ve taken to making lists (lists, lists, lists – I feel like Howard Hughes) and spending the bulk of my workday researching things about Korea, it’s culture and food and people, Daegu which will be my home for the next year, teaching ESL, Martial arts (the current obsession), Korean language or Hangul – I’ve got a few phrases so far - and pretty much anything else I can think of. I’m just trying to learn as much as I can before being there. My goal is to be fluent, or at least highly proficient, in Korean at the end of the year, and to have achieved confidence in my martial arts skills and my physical prowess. Basically I wanna be able to knock someone flat on their ass in 3.2 seconds if need be, but to harness my ki in order to live a harmony with the world around me (I’m a little full of shit but I love it).
For all intensive purposes, it seems that things are starting to fall into place. I’ve handed in my two weeks notice at work. I’ve set up all my bills to be paid from Korea. I’ve told all the people that need to be told. I don’t really think I’ve had that thing where it hits me that I’m actually going to be on the other side of the planet (Korea is 13 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time, btw) but I can imagine that that “Oh shit” moment will come when I see all my stuff all in suitcases. As my dad likes to say, “nosotros somos descendientes del Gitano Arrente” (not sure if that’s how its spelled) so this is it. I’m getting ready to be a gypsy again. I’m very excited to travel and see mountains and try new things. I’m scared about being all alone in a strange place. I’m sad that I’m going to be without my family and friends (hopefully someone will come visit me…come on Tati - new years in Tokyo). But more than anything I’m sooooo happy that my life once again has direction and purpose and achievement, and that – to me – is priceless. So this blog will hopefully serve to help me stay connected to everyone back in the US and so that anyone who cares can read about my crazy-interesting-different-new life in Korea.