Random Presents!

One thing I love about my students is their ability and occasional desire to express gratitude for what I do for them. Even if you don't think you've done much, being appreciated is the nicest thing and such a wonderful feeling.

Last Friday, I received an adorable pink patterned cloth with puppies and bubbled English words all over it. Of course I got this from one of my more adorable students. I love her to pieces.

The box reads "Especially for you. Please know that I love you more than anything else in the world."

Kiss Lover pink lip gloss from Tony Moly. Fancy!

Today I received another present from another student in the same class. This time I got make-up! Score! Haha, Koreans love pink lip gloss, so that's exactly what I got. I don't know when/if I'll ever wear it, but I definitely appreciate the gesture. She also took the time to write me a cute little note and draw my picture. How sweet!

I look exactly like that.

Whirlwind

So the past 10 days have really blown by. I feel like I haven't been able to keep up with the time. I've been off Facebook for over 2 weeks now and I really don't miss it. I'm actually dreading returning to it... dreading it. However, there are some people I haven't been able to communicate with while being off of it and I miss them. Those jerks.

I've been really stressed out lately over when I'll take my vacation. I think I have about 4 days that are owed to me, but I don't know when I can take them. To make matters worse, I don't have money to travel anywhere right now as I'm trying to save up to go home in December (and maybe a mini trip to Japan during Chuseok in September), but I know everyone here will throw a shit-fit if I take a staycation, because I live upstairs. Koreans really don't understand relaxing at home on a day that isn't a weekend or holiday. "Vacation where you stay home?? You might as well come to work!" Honestly, this is something I was told by my previous director. I had to lie about my "vacation" when she tried to deny it to me. And people wonder why I'm so excited to leave Korea. I could hermit it out in my apartment for the 1pm-9pm time that people are here, but the risk of someone seeing me if I need to go out and do something even slightly out of that time frame is too high. Ugh, my life. Maybe I'll just take mini trips to places around and outside of Daegu like Spa Valley or Gyeongju. I really like Gyeongju.

My weekend was a lot of fun. I had another relaxing Friday of game playing and nothingness and then on Saturday I went to Angel's Aerial Dance Studio to see my good friend Una's aerial silk performance. It was wonderful! I took video with my phone and uploaded it to Youtube: Here (don't hate me for this Una). Later in the night, Una put some of her costume glitter all over my face. You can see a silly picture below. Sunday was mostly a lazy day, but I had to go practice for Opera Spoonful's Art Song Night in the afternoon. I'll be singing "Sebben Crudele" it's an aria from an Antonio Caldara opera titled La costanza in amor vince l'inganno. I sang this same aria waaaay back in my senior year of high school and totally butchered it in a competition. Yay, nerves! I think I'll do much better now. My nerves regarding singing have calmed significantly thanks to all the public speaking (teaching) and karaoke practice. Finally, Sunday night there was a local production of an original play titled "Glitch" written by a local foreign teacher in Daegu. The story was good, but it was a bit slow-moving for me. I'm easily distracted though, so... maybe I wasn't the right audience for it.

Glitter all over our faces! Thanks, Una.

Sunday night I had this dream that I was late for work. Basically, I missed the entire day of work. I was distraught. I'd probably be fired if that happened to me in reality. I worry everything will get me fired after the financial issues and being laid off mid-contract at my last school. So far, it's been a lot of useless worry here.. I hope. Anyway, I woke up from this terrible dream to find that it was 2:35. I normally go into the office at around 2PM. Classes start at 2:45PM. I was still in bed at 2:35PM. I literally flew out of bed and ran downstairs in a hurry. THIS is a moment where I am ever-so-grateful I work downstairs. Thankfully, I don't have a 2:45 class on Mondays and my director was nowhere to be seen. What a relief! That dream though and what actually happened, what the hell? I don't even know how I slept that long, really. It was at least 10 hours of sleep I had by the time I woke up. I've been setting an alarm the last couple days to ensure this doesn't happen again.

Last night I decided it was high time I make an actual meal for a change. I've had too much takeout and quick meals lately. I had some chicken defrosted in the fridge so I looked up an oven-baked chicken recipe and found this: Baked Garlic Parmesan Chicken . It's a super simple recipe. I added a bit of Cayenne for some kick. I also made it gluten-free, not that I care about eating or not eating gluten, but the only bread crumbs I can buy off iHerb are gluten-free. I decided to pair the chicken with some risotto since I still had some arborio rice kicking around (another thank you to iHerb). I made a parmesan risotto, added broccoli and chopped mushrooms for color and health. Gotta counteract all that butter somehow. It all came out perfectly, as you can see here. However, it took me about 2 hours with prep and dishes and everything else that went into it. Thankfully, I have at least 3-4 more meals coming with all the leftovers. Worth it.

Put it in my mouth!

Oh, Korea.

While on my way to pick up my daily Dutch latte from my local Mass Coffee before classes, I ran into this issue. This is a moment where I say "Oh, Korea." People were ducking under this massive, potentially dangerous, piece of equipment because it was covering the entire sidewalk. Common sense is lacking in this country.

Oh, Korea.

Weekend Recap

The weekend has come and gone again and I am left in its wake. I had a really great weekend, which typically results in an immediate crash afterward. I must persevere through the workweek!

Friday night I stayed in and played video games and relaxed. It was perfect.

Saturday I had a date. I mean, I think it was a date? I met the guy on OKCupid, but I guess I never know what to expect with people I meet off of it. Is it just a meeting to test the waters for friends or more, or was there some interest ahead of time? I had a really good time with him. We went down to Suseong Lake and rode the paddle boats and walked around a bit. There's a really sweet coffee shop that's built inside of an airplane. Really bizarre, but neat! We sat in the "cockpit" and talked for a bit. After the airplane adventure, we had a berry bing-su dessert at a Korean dessert chain one of my friends had introduced me to. The shaved ice is more like snow, it's amazing! It was such a nice day on Saturday, but a little too sunny. We both ended up with a bit of a sunburn afterwards. Joy. Second weekend in a row of that for me. After our day date, we met up with some of my friends at Boccacio Brau for dinner and went to a singing room when we were done eating. He seems to have a really easy time talking to new people, which is fantastic for a friend or otherwise. Outgoing personalities are my favorite. I am not sure if I'm going to hear from him again or if he wants to see me as more than a friend. However, I'm in a good place right now. It wouldn't be the end of the world if it didn't work out.

Late Saturday night when I got home I noticed this rather large rash on the side of my calf. Immediately panicked a bit, then forced myself to calm down. Stress couldn't possibly help this rash. I did a little googling and I either am dying of meningitis, or it's a sun rash. Sun rashes can show up several hours after sun exposure, and I had plenty of that on Saturday afternoon. I imagine it's the most likely culprit as the rash is flat, has not spread since I noticed it, and doesn't even itch or bother me. I'll give it a week to go away and see a dermatologist if it doesn't diminish.

Last night I called my dad for Father's Day. I'd almost completely forgotten about it, but was reminded by a friend. I never look at a calendar on the weekends. I'd known it was coming up all last week, then once the weekend hit it completely slipped my mind. Thankfully, I managed to speak with him. I miss him so much! I can't wait to visit my dad and step-mom when I'm back in the States again. It's been too long.

Lately, I've been feeling a lot happier, generally speaking. I still have moments where I'm sad, but my bounce-back time is much shorter than before. Alcohol consumption seems to trigger it now, so I have been avoiding alcohol on the weekdays. There's the hope of returning to the US in just a few months that's keeping me going and happier than before.

I'm still sick! UGH. It's so annoying. I really would like to be able to hear out of my right ear and breathe through my nose without interference again. I told my dad about it, and being a worry wart he wants me to see a doctor sooner than later. I don't want to take antibiotics. I mean, I really, really, really hate them. I'm giving this illness until next weekend. If I still don't see any change in symptoms, I'll go. I feel like it is getting better, it's just painfully slow.

So this is day 7 of no Facebook. Most people don't even realize I'm off it right now, so it's easy to see how insignificant having a profile is in everyday life. I mean, I know people I'm closer with, especially some select people back home, are aware of the absence, but others see me so much in the real world that seeing my Facebook isn't a priority to them. That's ok. I found myself getting angry and calling a friend out for staring at Facebook while out at dinner with friends. It's one thing to pull Facebook up to show your friends something, and something entirely different to pull out your phone as a way of subconsciously avoiding interaction while in a real world social setting. It's not ok. My main worry now is that I'm going to miss out on events or happenings because it seems like it's really hard for people to send a text or call to invite you to things instead of just selecting your name in a list of friends to message on Facebook or send an event invite. Oh well, it's only two weeks, then the friends list will be cut down to size.

To end this recap, I'll leave you with the most recent Celebrity Mean Tweets:

It's Friday

Praise be! It's Friday!

Today is a good day. I'm wearing a pretty new kimono top I bought from Asos and I got my daily latte. Things are looking good.

I'm still recovering from a cold I caught from a friend last weekend. Actually, at this point, it's probably a sinus infection. I'm not a doctor though, however I don't see a point in going to one for the sniffles and hacking cough. It'll pass with time. I might have accidentally given this bug to a couple people last Saturday night. Oops.

Since I've been sick, I haven't gone to Muay Thai all week. Oh yeah! I started Muay Thai training a few weeks ago. It's been a lot of fun learning the ropes, but Coach is relentless. I could never survive an hour session with a runny nose or hacking cough. No way. I hope I'm feeling better next week. I paid $100 for a month of classes, so I need to get my money's worth out of my last week of the month.

Another thing to celebrate: The middle school exams are coming up early next month. This means that 4 of my middle school scheduled classes are mostly cancelled until exams happen so the Korean teacher can prepare them. Yippee! That's 4 extra hours a week of doing whatever I want. It's been exceptional this week since I've been sick. I have more resting time, less talky time.

I was expecting it to be harder to take a break from Facebook, but it's day 4 now and I feel pretty good. I don't miss it too much. Actually, I feel a lot happier than when I am on Facebook 2 hours a day. Prior to deactivating my account, I had removed the Facebook app from my phone so I could focus on the here and now when I'm out and about, so I'd already adjusted to that. I still occasionally auto-type "www.facebook.com" when I first open Chrome, but I've started to catch myself or train myself out of it entirely. I'm thinking I might break straight through to July and limit my time on it severely. It is an epic waste of time. I feel worse about myself sitting on the computer facebooking for hours than gaming, so that's saying something.

By the way, I hope someone out there watched The Daily Show this week and saw Jason Jones rip his pants. I love him.

The Facebook Break - Blog Reawakening

I haven't posted in such a long time, but things have been so crazy in Korea. So crazy. I'm taking a break from Facebook right now. Ideally it would be permanent, but sadly I know society these days won't allow that and still let me be social and in-the-know. I was laid off from my previous school halfway through my second contract and put in the position of going home before my debt was paid off or find a new job - quickly. I found a new job hastily and am regretting my impatience, but only a little bit. I should have tried for an after school program job, not another hagwon, but such is life. I wound up with a new school that has me working many more classes per week than I had been previously, leaving me feeling exceptionally drained most days of the week. Some consolidation was done to lower me down to legal hour limits (oh yeah, they had me working illegal amounts of classes for the first two months), but I still feel overwhelmed at times teaching 7 classes straight without breaks two days of the week. I moved to Daegu. Daegu has a great -massive- foreigner base compared to Daejeon. I finally found a niche I truly fit in with, which is something I'd never experienced in Daejeon. I met a guy. I met a guy I really liked. I mean I really, really, really liked him. He was freshly out of a bad breakup and still hurting pretty intensely. I noticed it occasionally in faces he made when he thought no one was looking or when he sighed deeply, but he made an effort not to let it poison what we had. I only knew of the ex from others as a warning to be careful. I was, but I wasn't prepared for what was coming. He passed away exactly 4 weeks after I met him thanks to being in the wrong place at the wrong time. I think he might have ended things with me had he not died, but losing him entirely was - and still is - a very painful thing for me. He was a wonderful person and a wonderful friend. I hope to be so lucky as to meet someone just as sweet and caring as him again. I'm ready to go home. There have been some really great things in Korea and some really terrible things. I try not to let the terrible overshadow the wonderful, but it's hard sometimes. Maybe I won't stay home forever, maybe my sea legs will kick in again and I'll come back or go somewhere new. Only time will tell. Life is a scary thing for me right now, but I'm hoping to overcome that.