a year in retrospect

i'm sitting in my apartment at my computer, listening to kpop, watching the minutes slowly tick by on the clock next to me...waiting. waiting. waiting for 4:30 to finally roll around so i can leave for the airport to catch my flight at 8. ahh, 8pm feels like it's an eternity away.

it hardly feels like it's been a year since i stepped out of the plane and onto korean soil for the first time. i felt so far from home, like i didn't belong. i was so worried about what the year would have in store for me. after all, i had only just turned 22, and i had graduated from university only 3 months earlier. even though i had lived outside of america before, i knew that i was embarking on this crazy adventure totally alone. doubts rose in the back of my mind. what am i doing here?

one year ago, i was just a scared, quiet girl. a girl who was bored with her life and the way things were. a girl who longed for something new and adventurous--a uniquely different experience--even if that meant leaving everything that was comfortable and familiar. so maybe i wasn't so scared after all. or maybe i was/am crazy.

one year ago, i had absolutely no idea what this year would hold for me. i had no idea about anything: the people i would meet, the places i would see, the things i would experience. i had no idea just how much i would love this place, and how i would absolutely not trade these experiences for anything.

my original plan was to stay for one year. save up some money. pay off my student loans. move back home. get a "real" job. absolutely not get attached. i had this grand plan for my life. and then i came to korea and threw the plan out the window. i got attached. i fell in love with korea. and i have no idea what i'm going to do after this is all over, but i know that i am absolutely never going back to my old plan. i realized that it's kind of nice to not have a plan. i don't need to freak out and worry about everything. i don't know what the future has in store for me, only God knows. and i know that He has only the best plan for me, so i don't need to worry.

i feel like i really experienced life this year. i let go of the plans and worries that i had about my life. i don't have to worry about silly things--life was made to be lived!

which is why i'll be coming back to korea after a month-long vacation back home in north carolina. honestly, i'm happy to be going home. i would be lying if i said i hadn't been even a little bit homesick this year. i miss my family, my friends, and my cat. i miss places and things back in the states. but i know that i'll be happy to come back to korea for year two. i know that, while i'm gone, i'll miss my [korean and foreign] friends here. i'll even miss school and my students. [let's face it: i FREAKING LOVE teaching.]

a little less than a year ago, i was sitting in a room full of strangers, listening to an epik speaker telling me what my life was going to be like. i was absolutely terrified. i was so tired [thanks a lot, motion sickness pills that don't work] and so hungry [thanks a lot, cafe we-don't-know-what-humans-actually-eat]. more than a few times i seriously considered booking the first flight out of here. but then, my group listened to an interesting lecture about tourism in korea. the girls was really excited to share her experiences and pictures, and i decided that korea seemed like a pretty awesome place.

for the rest of orientation, i spent my time making a list of everything that i wanted to see and experience while in korea. looking back at it, i realize that i have done a surprising amount of things. i've had so many new experiences because i decided to be brave and stay. [everyone back home would agree that this is soooo outside of my comfort zone...]

so here's my list. [the things i've done are in bold]:
1.) go bungee jumping
2.) go skydiving
3.) have a conversation with someone in korean
4.) learn how to cook a korean dish
5.) go to a full-length bigbang concert
6.) go to the korean war memorial museum
7.) wear a hanbok
8.) go to jeju
9.) go to busan
10.) climb seoraksan
11.) climb mount halla
12.) volunteer at an orphanage
13.) boryeon mud festival
14.) sing a song entirely in korean at noraebang
15.) go to the hello kitty cafe
16.) learn to ski/snowboard
17.) go to the zoo
18.) take the ktx somewhere
19.) see the ringing of the bells ceremony on new years'
20.) see the changing of the guards
21.) tour a palace
22.) tour a buddhist temple
23.) go to the dmz
24.) visit north korea
25.) be the best teacher EVER [still working on this one...]

i want to go everywhere and see everything. i guess i need to make a new list...

when i started writing this, i had absolutely NO intention of make it this long. but congratulations, you made it to the end!!

so here's a superspecial reward for you: se7en's new music video. [best. reward. EVER.]

summer camp

today was my last day of summer english camp[!!]
technically, it's summer "vacation". there are no students. no teachers. just me. and the few students who signed up for 7 days of [SUPERFUN] english camp. awesome.
basically, i've been teaching two summer camps every morning for four hours. [2 hours of 5th grade, and 2 hours of 6th grade.]
don't get me wrong, i absolutely love my students; they're really great! but i am sooo glad camp is over with. it's just really tiresome to teach 25 students for four hours a day, during the summer. all they wanted to do was go outside and play in the sun. my school told me i was to keep my students in the classroom all day. no outdoor games ㅠ.ㅠ
i tried to keep it fun. i think most of them enjoyed it, overall. we played a lot of games, and had scavenger hunts and races.
and now it's over.
and tomorrow i go back to america. for vacation.
and then it's back here for round two!!

goodbye BIGBANG. i shall miss you dearly.

a bucket full of water

this morning, i was walking to school, minding my own business. just like i do every morning. i was just walking along the sidewalk, rocking out to some bigbang on my iPod.

the sidewalk is lined with stores, and i noticed a man coming out of one of the stores ahead of me. he had a bucket in his hand.

a bucket full of water.

for some reason, people clean random parts of the sidewalk near my apartment.

the man looked at me, and i looked back at him. i definitely gave him the "please don't throw that on me" look.

but he totally did.

some man threw an entire bucket of water on me. luckily, i was wearing a skirt, but the entire part of my legs from the knees down was soaking wet. unfortunately, i was wearing sneakers and socks. and my feet got wet. and that pissed me off just a little bit. [and by "just a little bit", i mean "a whole freaking lot".]

i definitely gave him the "oh no you didn't" look. it didn't really help things, but it did make me feel a little bit better about the situation.

new gym

a new gym opened up across the street from my apartment. i mostly joined because they were having a special. and also because they had good advertising [read: attractive kboys handing out flyers].

normally, the gym costs about 1,200,000 won per year to join. [about $987] but i only paid 350,000 won for a year. [approx. $287] interestingly enough, i have a korean friend who wanted to join when they were running this special, but the price they were going to charge her was higher than the price they charged me.

so the gym opened about 2 weeks ago. and it's real nice [read: attractive].

yesterday, a trainer who works at the gym [read: a cute kboy with a six-pack] asked if he could help me. of course my answer was "ummheckyess".

today, i can't feel my body.

annddd, i'm going back for round two. in thirty minutes. 아이고~~

last day of school [kinda]

today is my last day of school. [like, real school...i have summer english camp beginning next week.]

i would be sad, except that i officially signed my new contract yesterday...so i'll be back for year 2 when school starts back august 25!! but i guess i'll miss these kids for the next 5 weeks~~

this is to celebrate summer [almost] vacation:
the following video gets the coveted miranda-seal-of-approval.

it's my birthday

eye candy. because today is my birthday. and i can.

so lately, i've really been loving super junior, and this is their newest music video. i kinda sorta really have a crush on siwon [the one tying the girl's shoe] and heechul [the guy writing the note in the library].


also, i think that the following video pretty much sums up why i am completely/totally/madly in love with T.O.P. mmhmm.



너무 멋있어요~~

quote of the day [volume two]

i have four coteachers, total [one for each grade that i teach]. two of them say the most random things imaginable to me. on an almost daily basis. it's not that their english is bad. on the contrary, both of them speak nearly impeccable english [at least grammatically]. so what they say to me, while being grammatically ok, is probably not something you should ever verbalize.

the following were actually said to me [fairly recently] by previously mentioned coteachers. [let's call them "coteacher #1" and "coteacher #2" for anonymity.]

*out shopping with coteacher #1, she notices that several korean guys are staring at me [one even passed by and turned to look again]*
coteacher #1: i bet you wonder why people here stare at you a lot.
me: maybe they think i'm pretty??
coteacher #1: no, they're just curious about why you're white.
me: ????????
**so i'm thinking that no one in this country is so ignorant that they are "curious" about why i'm white. it's not like they think i'm some sort of korean with a skin condition. i'm pretty sure they know why i'm white.

coteacher #2: is it hard to hold your eyes open?
me: .....what??
coteacher #2: your eyes are so big. so i think it is hard for you to keep them open.
**i still have no idea what this is supposed to mean. strange compliment? veiled insult? random observation?

coteacher #1: would it be ok if we taught the students the word "s***"?
me: absolutely not.
coteacher #1: but if we teach them, then they won't say it.
me: yeah, i'm pretty sure that if we teach them, then they will most definitely be saying that word.
**i'm not sure why it would be appropriate/acceptable for me to teach english curse words to elementary school students.

coteacher #1: last week, i taught the students the word "panties".
me: why? [the chapter we were studying was called "the book is on the table"]
coteacher #1: because i thought it would be funny.
later in class...i was teaching the students that they need to say "where IS my book?" because they kept asking "where my book?"
me: [to the students] you need to remember the word "is". it's really important. "where my book?" doesn't make sense.
coteacher #1: here is another example. if you say "where my panties at?" people will think you're dumb.
**i still can't think of a situation where any of my students should ever need to ask the question "where are my panties?" [especially the boys]. also, i'm pretty sure people will think you're strange for more than just grammatical reasons if you say that. to anyone. ever.

not ok.

engrish

since i have an over abundance of time most afternoons, i frequently surf the internet in search of things to entertain me. a while ago, i ran across this site.

basically, "engrish" is horrible [wrong] english/spelling. i've seen it numerous times throughout my travels in asia [korean//vietnam//thailand] and occasionally i'll take a picture of some engrish. in korea, it seems to be most common on t-shirts. that my students wear. which is hilarious.

so, about two weeks ago, i submitted two pictures that i took [one in korea, the other in thailand] to the website. and today, they finally featured one of them on their site!! so i'm pretty pumped about that. also, it got a pretty high rating and has apparently been shared a lot, compared to the other pictures. [too bad i don't get any credit for this picture. which is why i'm posting it on here ㅋㅋㅋ]

you can view my submission here.

boy, i need a boy

tired of being alone. sick of being single. i think i need me a [boy]. i need a [boy] like...?

...like any/all of them.

replace "boy" with "girl" and you've got the intro for taeyang's title track "i need a girl" from his new solo album solar, which was FINALLY released yesterday. [i mean, taeyang teased us with "where u at" and "wedding dress" waayyyyy back in october.]

so i nearly had a heart attack yesterday because i literally could not find his album ANYWHERE. [because i was dumb and didn't pre-order it...what was i thinking?!?!?] i had given up on finding the cd, when i stumbled across a store that had only 2 copies left [much thanks to christi ^^] by this time, it was 10:30 pm. since i was--thankfully--able to obtain the deluxe edition, it also came with a t-shirt and a super hott picture of taeyang [as if a not-hott picture of him exists]. HECKYESS.

i've been listening to the cd nonstop since then. [not gonna lie, i'm listening to it right now. at school. ㅋㅋㅋ]

solar starts off amazing. and with each song, it seems to get even more and more amazing. there's absolutely no way that i could write a non-biased, objective review of the cd, because i just love taeyang [and the rest of bigbang] entirely too much. i will say, however, that the first couple of times i listened to "superstar", the second track on his album, i wasn't overly fond of the song. the trumpet intro--to me--seemed a bit cheesy and over-the-top, but i will say that the song has grown on me the more i listen to it. [i mean, it's not like i hate the song, and i'm not gonna skip over it every time i listen to the cd; it's just not my favorite.] i am going to hate on the metaphors he uses in the song "you're my". like seriously, who ever wrote this song--it's not ok. "you're my ice cream, my sweetest ice cream." really??

the songs are mixed really well, and the slow rhythms really compliment taeyang's silky smooth voice. like, omygosh, it's even better listening to it with earbuds. it's really hard to pick a favorite. but right now, i'm really loving "i need a girl" and "just a feeling". [ok, so "break down" just came on and i remembered how much i love it too. aigoo.]

you make me say "yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah"

also, taeyang dropped his new music video for "i need a girl". and it is BANGIN'!! for realz. [ok, so i still think that T.O.P's new video is the hottest thing ever. but that's because he's my number one, and also allison would kill me for crushing on her man. she totally won him during 가위 바위 보.]

plus, g-dragon makes an appearance in the video, significantly adding to the hottness factor. [my favorite part is when g-dragon makes the announcement "i love girls", in case anyone needed to have that clarified ㅋㅋㅋ]

for your viewing pleasure:

my final rating for solar: two out of two fangirls.

this is the best kind of rating.

need more taeyang?? check out reallywally's totally biased [she is his #1 fan, after all], but more thorough, review here.

welcome to july

today is the first day of the most important month of the year.

i will celebrate the twenty-third anniversary of my birth on bastille day [another bangin' holiday, i'm sure.]

yeah, that looks pretty tight.

even though i don't particularly like birthdays, i do like making lists. [i also like presents.] so if you love me/kinda like me/are aware of my existence and feel compelled to buy me a present, i will accept anything from the following list. and also money. kthnx.

1.) large hello kitty calculator

this calculator is the size of a notebook, and i feel like i really need to carry this around in my purse in case i ever feel the need to randomly solve a tricky math problem.

2.) BIGBANG t-shirt

because who doesn't want to show off their love for the greatest [and also the most attractive] kpop group ever??

you can order the t-shirt [for me] here.

3.) iPod

pretty much any new, working model would be acceptable. i for real need a new one because my old iPod hates me/is possessed by satan/both.

true story: my iPod actually glares at me.

this concludes my list. i'm really easy to please. ^^

on a totally unrelated--and quite possibly more awesome--note, today is the day that taeyang's solo cd is FINALLY released. [after like 7 months of waiting. for real.] so imma pick up my copy right after school, and you can expect a full review of it by tomorrow *^^*

EXCITEMENT!! HOTTNESS!! HOORAY!!