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!