I miss things.

Friends

I really miss my friends in Florida. I miss being in middle and high school and always having someone (or multiple someones) that wanted to see me and easily made the effort to do so. Even as we got older and our intimate lives got a bit more complicated, I never felt unsure or hesitant about reaching out and calling them when I needed to talk or get out, and I was always open to them reaching out to me any time. I know when I'm finally home they'll accept me into their homes with open arms. They are more like my family than my friends.

I really miss my friends in Buffalo. I initially had a really tough time getting out and making friends when I moved to NY. It's easy to make superficial friends, but really hard to find the ones that actually want to get to know you. I didn't make many close friends, but the ones I did make were wonderful. They accepted me quickly and easily and I miss them dearly.

I miss my foreign coteachers. Not the ones that were douchey or loners, but the ones that would have movie nights or binge-show watching nights with me. Now that I work alone, I feel alone most of the time. Sometimes it's not so bad or I need the time alone, but other times it's really bad and I no longer know who I can reach out to anymore. I'm really stupid about how to be social.

Family

I miss my mom.
I miss my dad.
I miss my stepmom.
I miss my grandparents.
I miss big family dinners and people saying things about politics or social issues to royally irritate me.

Food

I miss restaurants that served food I could always rely on.
I miss grocery stores that were decent and had what I needed so I didn't have to order things online from halfway around the world to stock my pantry.

Work

I miss sick days. I haven't had one in over 2 years, and trust me, I've been ill.
I miss having a supervisor that was even remotely sympathetic to loss.

The "I Guess I'm on a Diet" Update

So the last few weeks have been terrible for me as far as food is concerned. I've been making poor food choice after poor food choice after poor food choice. Before this week, it'd probably been months since I had more than a piece of watermelon a day to classify as fruit intake. I've been lazy. I haven't wanted to cook. God forbid, if I did cook, that I make any effort to include vegetables in the mix. Just meat and starches, loaded with fats. So healthy. I can see and feel the results of my poor choices as well. I don't want to go back down this road of unhappiness.

I have always been a yo-yo dieter. I lose a bunch of weight, then I gain it all back, and put more on. I don't really know what to do to change my mindset about food. It's always there for me! Bored? Food! Tired? Food! Drunk? Food! Hungry? Food! Give me your burgers, your pizza, your chicken wings, and your french fries. If it's unhealthy, I probably love it, and eat it to an insanely unhealthy degree. I don't even want to think about the kind of money I have spent on junk food.

Exercise can't possibly be the answer for me either. I love exercising when I want to exercise and only if I can go to the gym or ride my bike when it's not raining or 800 degrees outside. I have a specific regimen that I like to follow and has always given me the best results (along with smarter food choices). Fourty-five minutes of cardio and thirty minutes of strength training, in that order. I ONLY like to do this at the gym. Exercise at home? Home is where I relax! I miss free weights and ellipticals. Those are impossible to find in Korea unless I want to spend $150 a month for a membership at a semi-decent gym, or $50 at a mediocre gym with no AC. I may be a glutton for punishment, but I will not exercise in a place that exceeds 20 degrees Celsius. No, thank you.

I'm still up in the air about what I'll do with exercising, but I have begun making better food choices. Cutting out the junk and adding in more fruits and veggies while reducing carbs. I bought a blender so I can make smoothies. I bought protein bars so I can eat something healthy and quick that'll keep me from starving by the end of my work shift, which always leads to the worst decisions. I'm counting my calories too. So far it has been pretty easy. I am allowing myself a cheat day on the weekend with the bank of calories I haven't been eating so as not to feel entirely deprived. I do want to avoid key foods as much as possible, such as sugary drinks. Those always seem to be the most addictive things for me and such a waste of calories that could be put towards food. Delicious food.

Right now I'm trying to focus on the little steps I'm taking. Smarter food choices, check. Now to figure out an exercise regimen that I can stick to until I can return to the glorious gyms of the USA.

Is it Friday yet?

I woke up Monday morning with a message from my friend Callie telling me that Orange is the New Black would be cancelled, even after renewing for a third season! I was distraught, to say the least, and infuriated by the article she attached. It took me until I googled the TV show to find that it was a hoax, and an easily believable one at that. Apparently many people were outraged and confused about why the show would be cancelled especially based on the reasons given. Empire News posted the original story that started all the hullabaloo, but that particular news site is full of satire. I think I've seen a post on there before about President Obama forgiving all federal student loans. Haha, as if Congress would ever let that happen in our lifetime! Anyway, I was able to set the record straight for her and avoid saying anything stupid in a public realm in regards to the article. Must remember: fact check everything I read on the internet. Nothing is sacred!

My weekend was pretty decent. I was dreading the art concert most of Saturday, but I'm happy it's over and done with. I don't know how well I did and, at this point, I don't care. My personal assessment is that I have a lot of work to do on improving nerves and not getting distracted by instrumentals, but oh well. I think everyone else did wonderfully, though. On Sunday I ended up staying home all day. I was so grateful for time to myself. I avoided the theater meeting that was happening like the plague because, as I suspected, it was full of nonsense drama I no longer want to be involved in. I'm leaving in December. If I decide to be involved in the theater while in Daegu any further I'll audition for parts when an opportunity arises and leave it at that. I am no longer interested in being involved in the politics. I have better things to put my stress and worry towards right now.

I HATE TUESDAYS. Tuesdays are the absolute devil at my school. Middle school exams are done, so my schedule is back to normal. Seven straight classes in a row. OH boy! I have seven classes on Fridays as well, but somehow it's better. I think I dislike my students on Tuesdays so much more than my Friday students. Days like Tuesday really make me wonder why I continue putting up with the garbage nonsense here. Seriously, 7 classes without a break? In what world is that ever ok? I have one class on Tuesday that is absolutely terrible. The last class I taught with them before exams started, I kicked one of the students out for being repeatedly rude and disrespectful to a point where I was going to do something really bad if he didn't GTFO. His Korean teacher had to babysit him for the rest of the class. GOOD. Once he left the classroom, balance and order was restored. It shouldn't have been that simple, but it was. He's the ringleader of chaos and disorder in my class. It's not ok. I try to go into my classes with a fresh outlook that things will be better this time, and I am not always successful. I just need to stop caring about everything. When I get into those mindsets the class or day is usually better.

Tuesday's classes are just about to begin... say a little prayer for me.

Summer! Vacation! Excitement! Engrish!

I hate summer in Korea. It is just the worst. It's overly muggy, it rains too much with no give, and it's Korea. Another thing is Koreans are all about energy saving (God forbid they turn off all those damn neon signs littering the country) and thinking air conditioning makes you sick (see here), so they use air conditioning sparingly, or leave it at such a high temperature that it does nothing to kill the humidity. Humidity is always the worst part about the summer. Pretty much as soon as I leave my apartment I am either drenched in sweat, water, or both. I would hate to live here forever. Five more months to go!

So I have taken the plunge and started planning my trip to Japan. I am going from September 5th through September 9th. I will be in Osaka for the first day, Kyoto on the weekend of the 6th and 7th, and then back to Osaka the night of the 7th through the 9th. I was advised it would be worth my time to take a trip to Nara to see the awesome deer. I plan on going there for the day on the 8th. I cannot express how excited I am to see Japan. The night I am in Kyoto I will be staying in a traditional ryokan, so I am pretty psyched. I've heard there are places in Kyoto where you can try on traditional kimonos. I think they even do your hair. I'll have to do more research about those options. AAAAAAH!!! SO EXCITED! Now that I know I will have the 5th off, I need to get my flight booked quickly. Update: Flights are booked! Woohoo!

This week one of my students came to school wearing a shirt with English all over the front. I stopped her so I could read it, knowing full well it would say something wonderful. She did not disappoint...

Are what?! The suspense is killing me!

To see other amazing grammar, spelling, intent mistakes with English on Asian clothing, check this out.

Love 146 Photo Scavenger Hunt

So this past Saturday I took part in a photo scavenger hunt for a fundraising event for Love 146 and its local chapter in Daegu. My team was comprised of my friends Anna, Rachel, Lene, and Olivia. We didn't go into the scavenger hunt with high hopes; there were so many teams to compete with (I think maybe 15 or 16 that made it to the end).

Before the scavenger hunt started, each participating group was given packets with the hunt list, a laminated card asking Koreans to help us with the game (in Korean), and a printed paper logo for one of the sponsors. We began at about 2PM and were told we needed to be back in Traveler's absolutely no later than 4PM or we would be disqualified.

First things first, we opened our packet and gawked at this list of 115 things to do. How, oh how, were we ever going to get through all of these? Rachel had the brilliant idea to start reading through them and pick out the easy ones we knew we could get done first. As we started to read through the extensive list, the group became anxious as other groups were passing by us getting things done, so we decided to get started.

One thing on the list was playing Rock, Scissors, Paper with as many Koreans as possible. We took that challenge too literally and probably played the game with 10 different Koreans.

Take a picture of the entire group jumping, mid-air. Check!

We ended up stopping by Buy the Book because we had to find an English newspaper and take a picture on a roof. We were a bit surprised to find they didn't have a newspaper, but we took a picture of a Newsweek magazine and hoped it would be enough. We got a great group shot on the roof.
Another thing we were able to accomplish, that I was quick enough to remember (of course), was taking a picture of washing dishes in the restaurant and standing behind the counter (with some members of staff for bonus points). My friend Elvie was ever so gracious and let us grab the shots, so we scored ourselves an extra 4 points we hadn't expected to be able to get! Yes!

Later on we had to take a picture of the entire group crammed into a phone booth. We made that happen without any issue.

I'm such a ham.

In the end, and much to our amazement, we managed to score 3rd place! I honestly have no idea how we made that happen. Maybe it was all those Rock, Scissors, Paper pictures? Haha, who knows! The 3rd place prize was a 60,000won gift certificate to a local restaurant in Daegu and a few waxing coupons. The hunt was a ton of fun, and I'm ever-so-thankful to have had such a great team with which to play. If I ever get more pictures, I'll post them as well!