Almost heading home...

I'm now a week away from my trip back to the states. I leave Daegu on December 6th which is a Saturday morning. I have to fly all over the place. I'm going from Daegu to Seoul, then from Seoul to Tokyo, then from Tokyo to Detroit, then from Detroit to Tampa. I'm anticipating being completely exhausted when I arrive in Tampa. Though I am extremely excited to have some of my Dad's delicious Cuban food and some of the other delicious things that I have missed over the past year. I feel like such a honky for being so excited about food, but I've made an official (written) list of all the foods I want to eat when I get home. I will have to double up the workouts so I don't gain a million pounds while I'm at home.

Well, Friday was my last official day working and as I expected it was really sad - the morning anyway. I pretty much knew that the hardest thing for me would be saying goodbye to my kindergarten students, and I was right. I hadn't even made it all the way into the classroom before I started crying. They all surprised me with cards that they had made, and even their parents wrote me letters (in Hangul of course so it will take me a long time to translate them, I'll have to enlist a Korean friend to help me). I thought it was so cute and sweet. I really will miss those kids like crazy. One of them, Kate, was one of the first students that I ever taught on my very first days at ECC so you can only imagine my attachment. But I took lots of pictures and got some funny videos of them being silly, so I'll always have lots of memories to look back on. My afternoon classes weren't really sad. I had a snack party with each class and I told them to be nice to their new teacher, and I said good-bye. A few of the students wrote me cards or gave me little presents. It was sweet. Then after work I went over to Ashley teacher's new apartment and had dinner with all the korean teachers. I'm really going to miss working with them, but at least I can find a way to hang out with them when I get back.

After Friday, even though I was supposed to be "done" working, things didn't really get any easier. Actually I spent most of the weekend feeling very overextended. On Friday night I pulled an all-nighter to try to pack up all of my apartment. I got a lot done but not nearly as much as I needed to. On Saturday morning (running on no sleep) I went to meet Nick and Young-gi at the hospital for Nick's hernia surgery. It was really bad timing (on the doctor's part, not Nick's) but I'm glad he was finally able to do it, and that I was able to be here. Especially because they don't really provide you with nursing care in Korea. In Korea, they assume/demand that the family do all the work for the patient. Aside from putting in meds and administering IV's and shit they don't do anything... at all. I think I would have been worried sick if I was at home when he was having this surgery. And Thank God for Young-gi. I don't know what we would've done without her. After Nick's surgery he was able to get some sleep so I had to go into school to get all the remainder of my work done. I had to make lesson plans, finish the kindie kid's writing books, clean out my desk, just a ton of stuff. I didn't get out of there until like 4:30 PM. Then I went home, got a few more things packed up and then I made myself a bag for the hospital and got ready for salsa. Even though I didn't really feel like salsa dancing, I felt that it was my responsibility to go to the last salsa class. A few of my Korean salsa students had made plans with me to take me out to eat so I had to go. So I went to the hospital for a little while and then went to the second (Intermediate) salsa class and to eat some galbi afterwards.

I spent Saturday night at the hospital. On Sunday morning I woke up and went straight to my apartment to get my stuff ready to move out. I have to say that I feel truly lucky because I have made some really amazing friends here in Korea. Elly and Janita came over and helped me clean up, Matt came over and was practically my work horse (he carried all my stuff over to Nick's and even helped clean), and Erin, my Kindergarted Korean co-teacher, came over with her car and drove all my stuff over to Nick's. They all helped so much. Even Stephanie, who will be moving into the apartment today, came over and cleaned a lot. By Sunday evening I was exhausted but I felt like I could finally relax a little. Matt and I headed over to the hospital after getting some Mcdonald's and Baskin Robbins for Nick. We all ate (it was Nick's first meal since Friday evening) and watched a movie. Then this morning (Monday) Nick was discharged and we came to his apartment. So now I'm at Nick's getting all my stuff ready for my trip and trying to leave my other things organized.

5 days til I'm home.

One-Year Anniversary

Today marks the one-year anniversary of my arrival in Korea.

It's hard to believe that I've already been here for a year. It's even harder to remember what I expected from my adventure across the world. I'd be lying if I said my feelings were crystal clear at the moment... They're a little mixed, to say the least.

I'm very excited to see my family and friends that I've been away from for a year. I know that seeing them and getting to spend the Holidays with them will make me very happy. Furthermore, the possibility of getting to see my family in Cuba is enough to give me a little ray of sunshine.

But...

I'm sad about leaving my school. My Kindergarten students have already begun giving me guilt trips. I've been teaching them for their entire school year and these kids really are all mine (as I'm one of two teachers for them). One of them, a little girl named Kate, insists - to anyone that will listen - "In December I will go America with Susy Teacher." She is so freaking adorable. I'm sad about not working with all the Korean teachers that I've really come to love. Who will be the Korean-English to English-English translator once I'm gone? Who will bring a little common sense and efficiency to the wonderful ECC I've come to love? I'm sad about leaving Nick and not getting to spend Christmas and New Year's with him...no New Year's kiss for me this year.

I'm stressed out about heading back to the states with no money because I just cant afford to change my money over right now. The exchange rate is so shitty I would basically be throwing a third of the money I've earned in the crapper. I'm worried about the fact that neither one of my parents is working. My little sister is overworking herself with a full time job and going to school full time. And my possibilities to help them have considerably diminished since I can't really send money over anytime soon.

I'm not sure... at this point I'm hoping for the best and trying to be happy just because I'm going to get to see my mommy and daddy and Susa; Tati, Caro, and Kristi (hopefully) - who I've missed so much; my Daniel - who must be huge by now; Katoya, Jose and the always adorable Brie; Dulce, Jesse, Dan... and many, many more that I have missed so much over the past and hopefully have missed me a little bit.

17 days til I'm home.

Halloween madness...

This year, I can definitely say that Halloween was unlike any other. For starters, I celebrated it in South Korea, where it's not really a holiday. Secondly, Nick and I placed second in a Costume contest. And third, I can now say that everyone has seen me in my underwear (well, my bra at least).

For Halloween this year, one of our friends, Sarah, decided to put together this huge "Rocky Horror Picture Show" Halloween event. I don't really think I anticipated how big it got but it turned into this HUGE event. Since Nick and I are both a little weird (and not exactly easily embarrassed) we decided to go in full Rocky Horror style with him dressed as Rocky and me dressed as Janet. For any Rocky Horror Virgins out there not familiar with these characters they don't really wear very much for the duration of the movie. Janet wears a white bra and a slip. And Rocky... well... Rocky wears nothing but gold underpants. Oh yea...

As all my friends can attest, if I do something I do it all out, so I actually made Nick's teeny, tiny gold shorts out of these crazy stripper pants that we found in the "hooker" stores on the shady side of downtown and then I used the left-over fabric from the legs of the pants to make him gold boots. We of course also found a gold wig and then I did my best to recreate the Rocky haircut on it. For myself I just bought a white bra and a slip and fixed up my white heels to look like Mary Janes. We're crazy I know. But I thought we looked really authentic. The only reason we didn't win first place is because there was a guy there dressed as Dr. Scott from the movie with a freaking wheel-chair and everything. Whatever, you overachiever. Lol!

So here we are as Rocky and Janet. What do you guys think?


I think the best part of the whole night were people's reactions. I got so many comments regarding the fact that I was in a bra. I got several "Nice rack," a few "Oh my God!" and of course my personal favorite goes a little something like this:
Me: (walking out onto a staircase)
Random Australian Guy: (walking up the staircase)
Me: (polite smile)
Random Australian Guy: Krroiikkeyy!
Yup! And that doesn't even compare to the comments that Nick got. Random Korean girls kept fondling him. The funniest thing is that most people who wear like Superman or other superhero outfits buy them with these fake muscles on them, but Nick's were actually real. Some girl said she thought we had photoshopped the pictures. But nope.

So yea that was Halloween. Nick and I finally stumbled home (after some delicious galbi, of course) at about 5AM.
Overall, one of the best Halloween's I've had in a long time.