It wont stop snowing

Today, I was pretty unproductive. Yes, I did finally finish washing my clothes; it only took two days. Apparently, owning a dryer in Korea is pretty rare. So, between washing clothes in my mini-washer and hang drying every item, it took a while. I was also able to catch up on my shows: Modern Families and Brother’s & Sisters. Can someone tell me what the hell happened to Grey’s Anatomy and Private Practice? I mean really…they haven’t aired anything for weeks and I’m pretty sure the last episodes were not the finale. If so, they were pretty shitty finales. Just making a point. Maybe I'm just being impatient and they just haven't posted the latest episodes online yet.

With my above accomplishments noted and the realization of my laziness, I decided to leave my apartment and get some fresh air. So here I am at Caffé bene with another hot chocolate down and my fingers ready to tell all about my “exciting” day.

It's snowing a lot today. It literally hasn't stopped all day. I won’t go as far to say, "I hate snow," but I highly dislike it. Plus, the boots I own suck. Instead of buying cute brown boots I should have been more practical and bought boots that doesn’t allow slush to seep in. My socks are basically soaked and I only walked a few blocks.

Since, I have nothing else to really talk about, I’ve decided to use this time to chat about the direction and goals for my life within this next year.

Goals:

1. Save a ton of money
2. Live it up

Well, that was easy.

The warmth of my chingus

I've been criticized by my fellow *chingus/co-workers about not mentioning their names in my blog, so I will now refer to my co-workers individually by name - I don't want to make anyone feel left out.

Today Ian (a fellow foreigner) and I went on a journey; a voyage to find the post office. Neither of us knew where we were going or exactly where the post office was located. Between his knowledge of the Korean language and my excellent sense of direction we actually found it. Plus Mieka, another chingu of mine told me it was on the University campus. After our campus tour and visit to the post office we stopped at Kenya Espresso where I enjoyed a hot chocolate, wrote a few letters and wrote in my journal. It was nice.
*Chingu(s) - Korean for friend(s)

I had a great Christmas thanks to Shanna (yes, you are finally mentioned) and Mieka. They hosted a Christmas brunch where they also played Santa and handed out gifts. You can't see it too well in the picture, but they gave me earrings and a snazy headband. I do have to say I cooked some mean bacon and eggs plus the mimosas were a great idea!

I don't have too much to say. I'm still procrastinating learning Hangul. AND....I'm super excited I finally have one follower...thanks Felipe!!

Bye Josh teacher...I'm glad you made it back to Iowa safe! Who knew Santa was so young and skinny.

song of the week:

Samgyeopsal and Soju

I had the most amazing meal tonight - Samgyeopsal! What is that you ask? It's pork belly with a ton of other items put into the middle of a lettuce wrap. It's fucking DELICIOUS!! Can I say the F word? Oh well too late. There's just no other word to emphasize how good it was. We have two teachers leaving and unfortunately tomorrow will be their last day. However, because of their departure the staff went to the Samgyeopsal restaurant to eat and I was able to be touched by the bacon Gods. Samgyeopsal is my new favorite food. While at the restaurant we had tons of beer and soju, which is similar to vodka. It's good.

Activities day went well. It was busy, but fun. I also got the results back from my health assessment...I'm clean.

For my fans, I'll try and take many pictures this weekend and post them some time next week.

Off to my friends...

Poor kid

I wasn't going to post anything today, but due to popular demand...here I am! Today was another day in Kwangju, S. Korea. The past two days have actually been excellant. I just feel like I'm truely getting settled and I live here now. Everyday I obviously teach, but I try to learn something new while also trying to reinforce and remember the old things -- my Korean still sucks. Maybe next week I'll instantaneous pick it up. We do have winter break and I do actually plan to study and practice. Hopefully I can atleast get Hangul, the Korean alphabet down by this next week.

This morning the topic of the day for my Kindergarteners was Science. We had little toy circle things that had a dip in the middle of it. The goal was to get the "wheel" or ball into the dip by moving the circle toy in a circular motion. For the most part, most of the kids got it right away and it was super easy, but unfortunately it wasn't easy for everyone. One of my kids could not do this to save his life. Like I said above, you just had to move the toy in a circular motion, but no not Jason. As I'm helping other students I look over to see Jason doing this:

Jason was vigoriously shacking his toy and crying uncontrollably. As you can see, he was really upset that he couldn't do it. After seeing this, I immediately went over and as I started to help, Mr. Independent jerked the toy away and continued to shack the toy and cry. I of course tried to comfort him, but could only handle about 15 seconds of it before I was forced to turn around to cover my mouth from laughter.

Tomorrow I get my health results back. Hopefully I'm clean and passed. tomorrow is also another special activities day - Christmas! We have fun festivities planned for the whole morning: making snowman and....well, that's all I actually know, but there are three other stations. It should be fun!

Two posts in one day. Really?

Written 12/21/10

It's me again. I know this is my second post of the day, but I'm a little obsessed with blogging. Plus, I really think you need to hear the important stuff that's going on in my life. Two of the teachers are sick and I'm really trying and praying to the G.O.D. I do not get sick. I think I may have jinxed myself by saying, "I don't think I'm gonna get sick" though. What an idiot; but I will keep faith.

Yesterday when I went to complete my health assessment they also weighed me. The weight was in kg so I waited until I got home to convert it to pounds. Apparently I lost 10 lbs?!?!?!?!? Really, I kid you not. It actually made me a little nervous, which is why I resorted to McDonalds for dinner. Although, I'm not upset about loosing weight, but really ten pounds in about 6/7 days, come one...that is not healthy. I would prefer to loose it slowly and not jeopardize my immune system and the equilibrium of my body. I'm sure by maintianing my water intake and eating at least 3 times a day I'll be fine. Becoming a healthier weight = good, loosing weight rapidly = not good.

It doesn't feel like Christmas in GwangJu so here are my two favorite Christmas songs. It took me a while to find this video. Oprah never lets me down.

and of course I cant forget this...

No gloves when you draw blood....WTF.

So I was completely wrong about my schedule in my previous post. As of now, I don't work until 12:20pm which is insanely odd for me. Back home I typically worked 8am-6pm (give or take 30 minutes) - no complaints here though. It's actually kind of nice. I can check email, watch movies, clean, basically get things done that I've held off doing. Today I emailed and took a shower - great accomplishments.

I had my typical everyday class Thumbalinas first. They are so cute, adorable and smart!! I already know they will be my favorite class even though we are not suppose to have favorites, but whatever I can't help it. Today I actually went into work a little early to figure out my schedule, which wasn't too bad. It's figured out now so I'm good. There were only two classes that gave me trouble today and it wasn't necessarily the whole class, but just specific students from the class. These students obviously have no idea I don't play. When I say do it, I mean do it. When I say say it, I mean say it. Do what I say when I say. Okay, fine no I'm not this mean, but I definitely hate when kids think they can just walk all over you because you're new...that won’t fly with me. I'm sure I'll ease up as soon as the kids start to realize if they're good than I won’t turn into a green blood sucking demon from hell. If they are good, they'll realize I am actually a true Angel.

After my morning class I went with my co-teacher to complete my health exam. It was interesting. We were in a huge rush the whole time. I did have to teach at 3pm, which someone covered. Yeah, sorry about that. Everything was fine until I had to get my blood drawn. I'm not really scared of needles, but I don't necessarily love them. I get a little anxious when I have to get blood drawn; plus I've given blood twice in my life. The first time I fainted and the second time I actually became pretty ill and did not feel well the rest of the day. I haven't donated since. I am being a little dramatic about getting blood drawn today--I did not have any type of reaction or faint, but just so you know I am somewhat of a germaphobe. Well, I would actually say I'm just cautious of germs. Any who, to my horror as the nurse is explaining what she will do, I notice she isn’t wearing gloves. She continues to talk and as she is talking she pokes around my arm looking for that juicy vein; still no gloves. She swabs my arm with an alcohol swab…still no gloves. AND THEN she reaches for the needle and pokes my arm glove free. I honestly had an internal panic attack. Our hands carry a large amount of germs!! So many illnesses can actually be prevented by simply washing our hands and being cautious about spreading germs via hands! And to top it off, when I went to the bathroom after collecting a urine sample/pissing on my hand, the community bathroom only had bar soap. I’ve realized bar soap in community bathrooms are pretty popular here, which is another thing I do not like. Also, Korean people do not cover their mouth when they cough and when you go out to a restuarant and an appetizer is brought to the table there are no plates. Everyone just eats from the same dish, even if its salad. You just go ahead and dip your chopsticks in.

Luckily my arm hasn't turned black and fallen off yet, but it may. You never know.

Culture Shock?

Just before putting out an Amber alert for my missing spunk, thanks to my B.S. in Psychology (and of course my friend Jack) I was able to figure out why my spunk decided to take a vaca - CULTURE SHOCK. Why didn't I think of this first?!? Honestly, for some reason I assumed me, a biracial female from Iowa would be immune to standing out in a crowd. Boy was I wrong. It's completely different. Yes I do obviously stand out in S. Korea, but in reality it has nothing to do with ones skin color. Everything is different from home. They don't have sidewalks, the toilet paper is not as soft, they don't have real chocolate, foods I'm actually familiar with taste different, etc. etc. All of these things are pretty miniscule, but definitely still has an affect on my adjustment to Korea. Just the mere fact that I've only been able to communicate with 7 other people since I've been here has had a large affect; probably the greatest. Although, I absolutely love being in a new place and not understanding what people are saying around me is intriguing, at the same time it does get a little lonely.

In reality, I'm pretty damn lucky to have other English speaking foreigners at my school. Some teachers come to Korea and they are the only foreigner in their school. I don't think I could do this. Everything I've learned so far has been from my fellow co-workers. To how to take a taxi, where the grocery store is, how to get to school, what items I should buy, etc. Not to mention they are instant friends! So this is a shout out to you: Thank-you so much for helping me out and befriending me. We have some great times ahead of us!

I finally unpacked and am completely settled. Actually unpacking and moving in really helped with feeling like I live here now. I can only live out of my suitcase for so long. My apartment actually feels like my home and I am starting to like my apartment more and more. You're right Allison, it's cute. Besides the above, there's nothing too exciting going on. Winter break is coming up soon, so I will actually only work this week and then next week I'm off. I'm pretty excited for the festivities we have planned: Christmas brunch, cocktail party, exploring GwangJu, New Years Eve party, and mimosas!! Can't wait!

I have class around noon today, but will be heading in early to try and figure out what I'm doing. Task for the day: go with the flow and don't sweat when I don't understand what I'm suppose to do for work.

I want my spunk back.

I'm kinda in a funk (I think). I don't really know why. I absolutely love it here! I love walking around and not having a clue where I'm at or even being able to understand a word others are saying. Although, I did finally figure out how to say thank-you in Korean (kamsamnida). For some reason I just feel....well, blah. Almost like I'm just here being. I'm never really hungry, I've had a lack of energy, I've been indifferent about a lot of things and for someone who is pretty opinionated and typically knows what she wants this is weird. Depression? Nope, that's not it. Home sick? Mmmm, I definitely miss my friends and family, but I wouldn't say I'm home sick (at least yet). Maybe, my body is still adjusting to its new environment? Yep, I thinks that's it. Well, damn. It needs to hurry up and adjust because I would like to get my spunk back please and thank-you - I mean kamsamnida.

Alright body, to assist with this adjustment, here is what I'll do for you: make sure you're intaking a substancial amount of fluids, specifically H2O. I don't want you to become dehydrated. Body, I would like you to know I will be drinking a large amount of alcohol tonight. So, I'm apologizing in advance...sorry. I will also make sure to energize you with an efficient amount of calories a day. I know your eating schedule has been turned upside down and you've been tasting a lot of new foods, but you'll get use to it. Oh yeah, I will make sure you get a decent amount of sleep each night. There you have it...I've made these promises. Now, this is what I want in return: do not get sick and I want my spunk back. That's it! Just these two little favors and I promise you I will take care of you!

Moving on. Here are some photos of my new home. It's small and I don't really like it too much, but it's doable and I can live here for a while at least. One of the teachers will be leaving at the end of January and I will be moving into her apartment which is bigger, slightly nicer and smells better. So I'm pretty excited about that!

Here is my room looking towards the kitchen area, which is behind the glass doors. It's small, but like I said, doable. What do you expect from a one bedroom studio apartment? Sorry about my stuff all over the place. I've been meaning to unpack, but I've been so busy. I was going to unpack today, but I don't think that will happen either. Maybe tomorrow.

 Here's my bathroom. It always has this weird funky smell, but I'll deal. Are you wondering where is the shower? Look closer. Nope, even closer. Do you see that white hose thing coming from my sink? Thats my shower and yes essentially the bathroom itself is my shower. Weird right? I shower over the shitter.

 And my kitchen. I don't like my kitchen. I think its gross and it always has a funky smell. The kitchen in my other place is a lot better!

 View of room from kitchen. There's my front door.

 My apartment building. I live on the 2nd floor.

 View down the street from my building. Recognize it?

 Now down the other side...

ps---my co-teacher, Sunny, read my palm the other day. She said I was going to make a lot of money.

pss---I want to give a big thanks for those who made my going away party great!!! I miss you already!

As you can see, we like colorful drinks that come in small glasses.

What a good day :)

The first day of school was a success! I woke up at 5:30am, which is pretty early - I just couldn't sleep anymore. I literally slept all day and then all night - too much! Anyway, one of my co-workers came and picked me up to walk to work. It's only a five minute walk, which is awesome! There are five other English speaking teachers, which again is AWESOME!! Instant friends! Since they all know each other very well it was a little nerve racking to be the newbie, but by the end of the day/night it was fine. Plus one of the other teachers has only been here a week, so he's pretty new as well.

I'm still in the process of understanding my schedule, but this is what I 've gathered so far: I teach 5-6 year olds from ~9am until 12pm, 7-9 year olds in the afternoon and slightly older kids until about 5 or 6pm. My schedule also changes depending on the day it is, but understaning this will have to come with time.

Yesterday wasn't a typical day for my 5 and 6 year olds. They have this big party once a month celebrating every child's birthday in that month, so yesterday actually was more of a chiatic, crazy and loud day. However, it was a pretty fun first day! We did a little work, but mostly sang songs and prepared for Birthday as they call it. It basically is similar to an assembly. The whole school, which is only about 50-60 kids, attend and watch everyone with birthdays walk in the room with candles lit and crowns on. Then each child gets an opportunity to stand at the front while their classmates bring them gifts. It was so adorable!! After each child has their moment to shine each class goes to the front and sings a song. Usually all of the English teachers complete a play, but unfortunately we didn't have time :(  We then walk back to our classes to eat pizza and chicken nuggets (they call if fried chicken, but it's basically a chicken tender). As for the rest of the day...I observed a few different teachers. Today (Friday) I will be observing the morning classes possibly even teaching the afternoon classes, but I hope not! I still want to observe again and start fresh Monday, but we'll see.

Last night all of us teachers went to dinner at this mexican restaurant called Tequilaz...we had a lot of margaritas! It was fun. Everyone is just so nice, they didn't let me pay for anything; apparently they always take the new people out for dinner, which is great of them! So far so good....now off to work!

I'm Here!!!

I finally made it to GwangJu, S. Korea. I'm safe, excited and tired. I boarded the flight and 14 hours later I arrived in Seoul S. Korea. The flight was okay. My plan of not sleeping the day before so I would just fall asleep on the flight worked! I slept most of the flight and only had to entertain myself for about 5-6 of the 14 hours in which I watched Charlie St. Cloud and one of the Twilight movies. Sorry Twilight fans, I don't really keep up with this series so I'm not sure which one it was. It definitely wasn't the first movie, maybe the second?

During dinner on the flight, the Asiana flight attendant gave me a choice between two different meals. For some reason he didn't say the options in English or I just didn't catch it seeing how I was severly sleep deprived. I just replied by shrugging my shoulders and saying, "mmm, whatever you have." As he was getting my meal I looked around and everyone else had some type of asian influenced dish. I was pretty excited to see what new food I would be able to taste - he gave me a small beef steak and steamed vegetables. Pretty American, ugh?!

I landed in Seoul ~6am Wednesday morning (Korean time). Secruity wasn't intense like when it was in Rwanda. I was actually pretty shocked to see how relaxed it was. I suppose the secruity going onto the flight may be more intense. At least, I hope so. Anyway, I grabbed my luggage and walked to the main area squinting to look for a Korean person holding a sign with my name. Looking, looking, looking....ah ugh, found him! As soon as we made eye contact and confirmed we were looking for each other, he ran up to me and without saying a word he just grabbed one of my large bags and started running - I'll call him Bob. I of course, started running behind Bob. I didn't really understand why we were running, but we just kept going. If he stopped than I stopped. If he ran faster than I ran faster. At one point during our run Bob turned to look back at me. Without hesitation I started to turn to look behind myself, but then realized he was just checking to see if I was still following him. We ran more until we reached the bus and then it all came together. I was late. The bus I needed to be on was scheduled to leave. Bob smooth talked the bus driver and I was able to get on the bus. Since the bus driver was yelling at Bob, I could only assume he was probably a little irritated. I took the last seat on the bus and we left Seoul. Unfortunately, I was unable to thank Bob; I'll probably never see you again, but thanks for getting me on the bus!

Four hours later I finally arrived in GwangJu! I gathered my luggage and started to walk towards the waiting area to look for another person holding a sign with my name, but no one was there. I decided to see if there was an area where I could exchange money. Oddly, the bus station seemed to be connected to what I would call a strip mall and there was a bank. I walked in, didn't understand anything and how this was going to happen so I walked right back out and headed back to the waiting area. I kept looking for a Korean individual who seemed to be looking for an American. As I was standing there taking a 360 degree gaze around the place a petite Korean woman came up to me. She was there to pick me up! She kept saying, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry." I assumed it was because she was late. I purposely failed to tell her she wasn't late, I was just trying to exchange money. Later in the conversation I asked what her name was and she replied, "I'm sorry," and yet again, it all came together. She wasn't apoligizing, she was introducing herself; her name was Sunny, my co-teacher! She's very nice and friendly and I think we are going to get along great! I told her I didn't have any Korean money (won) and we immediately went to a bank. They also stopped at the market to get a few things for me: bread, jelly, milk, juice and a few other items to get me going. After the market and bank, they took me to lunch at an Italian restaurant and following this we went to my new apartment!

My apartment is small, but doable. I just need to clean it than it'll be great! I couldn't figure out the internet so I decided to watch a movie, something that will put me to sleep. Shawshank Redemption it is. I didn't realize how tired I was, but I immediately fell asleep and was knocked out cold. Apparently my co-workers stopped over around 1pm and knocked on my door, but I didn't hear anything. I only know this because they stopped over again around 7 or 8 pm. There was about five of them and again they seem really nice and we will probably get along great! Also, there's a teacher from Iowa here as well.

Tomorrow will be my first day. Well, not an official day at school. As of now, tomorrow I'm getting a health assesment and have to complete orientation. I'm just not sure if I will start Friday or if they will just have me wait until next week and this week will be used for orientation/observation. Everyone has been asking if I'm really nervous, but as of now, I just feel really indifferent. I'm sure I'm just really exhausted from traveling and the nerves will come later. We'll see what tomorrow brings -- good night!

When will this be over? I just want to be there.

Written 12/14/10:

Most of my day was spent running around the city of Chicago. But only after spending my morning emptying 30 lbs of shit into my “not gonna make it to Korea” bag. And yes I said, “30 lbs”!

5:30 am: Sorry _______, Korea & I will miss you!

Fill in the blank with the following:

Black strappy heels

ISU t-shirts

Spray Gel

Straightner (now I must go natural)

Olive Oil

Bed sheets

Mancala game

Book: My Horizontal Life

Spring clothes

and a lot of other random clothes

Maybe next time stuff?

10:30am:  Anyway, I dropped the weight. Landed in Chicago, made it to the Consulate to pick up my visa and then back to the airport around 3:30pm to sit and wait for my flight at 1am Tuesday morning. I couldn’t even check-in until 9:30pm Monday evening; so I sat.

After about 5-6 hours of sitting in the food court I’m finally able to check-in and guess what happens? Apparently someone’s over weight again and apparently your carry-on can only be 20 lbs?!?! Damnit, not again! First, I just want to say how annoyed I am about this. Really? Things all of a sudden change because I’m checking into a different airline? I mean, I get it, but if I did not stop in Chicago my carry-on luggage would not have been weighed and I wouldn’t have had to resort to paying the over the weight limit fee of $50 for 2 pairs of jeans and 3 pairs of ankle socks. However, they are pretty sweet ankle socks. Wait no excuses I’m still really annoyed by this.

11:21 pm:  Still up waiting to board the flight at 12:30am.

As of now, I’ve only slept for ~1.5 hours and have been up since 1:30 am – I’m tired.

*big sigh*

Man, a lot has happened the past few days. I'm currently in Storm Lake, Ia visiting the mom who is currently in the living room yelling Spanish curse words at her dogs (thank-god for the computer room). Tomorrow, off to my hometown, Sioux City, to visit the dad & step mum.

It's official, I spoke with the travel agency today and I'm leaving bright and early Monday morning December 13th!! There could potentially be a few issues with checking in, luggage check-in, visa, etc.; but hopefully it will just work itself out because basically I'm tired of dealing with it. I'm going to just relax and trust the travel agency.

Since I'm somewhat of a procrastinator, I decided today would be the best day to tie up all the loose ends/business one has to take care of when leaving the country for a year -- I'm exhausted from talking on the phone and figuring out bills. But, the exciting thing is, ITS DONE.

By the way, I'm annoyed Grey's wasn't on last night. I waited in excitement all day (like I do every Thursday) for Grey's Anatomy at 8 pm and what happened? It was not on! Instead, I was forced to watch two (not one, but two) one hour specials with Barbara Walters. I love Barbara, but honestly I love Grey's more. Come back to me Grey's, come back to me.

This visa shit is a pain in my ass.

For those of you who do not know this, an E2 visa is required to teach in Korea. Unfortunately, in order to obtain an E2 visa an in person interview is required for teachers not teaching in public schools and for first time teachers - the closest Korean consulate is in Chicago.

The trip was okay, a few ups and downs, but for flying standby, getting there by flight was the easy part. Since I couldn’t schedule an appointment for the afternoon, I was stuck with an interview time of 10 am Wednesday. And since I was unable to find a flight to Chicago before 10am and also with enough time to get downtown, I had to fly in Tuesday night. This wasn’t too bad I just had to be flexible. My problems didn’t begin until I reached the blue line to get downtown.

Being the smart and prepared individual I am, I googled directions to and from the airport and my hotel. I just had to take the blue line to Forest Park and then walk to Chicago/Milwaukee st. to catch a bus that will take me within 2-3 blocks of my hotel, which I would have to walk. It’s only a 5 minute walk—I can handle that! I’m sitting on the subway; I’m starting to get antsy. Ultimately, I just really wanted to get to my hotel and get settled. Maybe even go to the local pub and grab some food and a drink. This didn’t really happen. Since I’m so smart I took the train all the way to the end because that is what my directions said. I was supposed to take the train to Forest Park and then walk to Chicago/Milwaukee. Following the directions I wrote down, I get off at Forest Park. I walk down to catch this bus. Mind you, the whole time I’m thinking, “why is this train so empty and why is there no one outside and why is it so dark – I’M SUPPOSE TO BE DOWNTOWN.

I get off the train, make my way outside to find one employee of CTA (Chicago Transit Authority), THANK GOD, and about three other people just standing around. I ask the CTA employee where I catch the bus. He looks at me weirdly, almost like he already knew I was lost and I should not be at Forest Park, and says, “Where are you trying to go?”  I tell him to my hotel downtown. His eyes widen and he says, “you’re not even downtown.” CORRECTION: My directions said take the train towards Forest Park and get off at Chicago Street. My tired brain was apparently not registering anything correctly. I eventually made it downtown and to my hotel by midnight. I checked email and then went to bed.

Shout outs:

CTA employee - helped me figure out I was not in the correct location and for that I made the last train into the city.

Lesbian couple on Chicago/Milwaukee - guided me to the correct bus stop.

Girl I met at Korean Consulate going to the same city - hopefully we will meet up!

Woman at bus stop outside of NBC Tower - thanks for all of your help getting back to the blue line!

My homegirls at O'Hare gate B11 - thanks forgetting me on that flight to MN! Otherwise I would have been home really really late.

No shout out for you! Work on your people skills:

Man who pointed to the NBC tower when I asked if he know what building it was - you could have at least smiled or made eye contact.

Guy on phone in Korean Consulate - if you're in any type of office, don't speak on your cell, especially if you're just "catching up." Go to the fucking hall.

People at O'Hare gate B11 - If you're in a line, it's not okay to just come up and bypass everyone else in line. The employees can only handle one person at a time, so wait your turn. Also, there was no need to be rude with these women, they were doing the best they could with ten people yelling at them. They're employees of an airport not God.

My apologies:

Secretary at Korean Consulate - I'm sorry I couldn't hear/understand you. It wasn't because of your accent, it was the guy behind me who was speaking loud as hell on his phone.

English guy on blue line - I'm so sorry for popping my gum. Sometimes I don't even realize I'm doing that. Also, if I had the chance to enter a gum popping contest, I now would thanks to your encouraging words.

I got my visa number

A lot of people have been asking, "Angel, when are you actually leaving?" Unfortunately, I haven't been able to tell them anything. I've been waiting for my paperwork to go through and to get my visa number so I can apply for an E2 visa. Well, I just got my visa number....whoop whoop!!!! Tomorrow will be spent calling around and finishing all of the loss ends that come with moving out of the country and also scheduling an interview with the Korean Consulate to get my visa - hopefully this can be done Tuesday. When do I officially leave for Korea? This I still don't know, but I'm thinking later this week. I will have more of an idea after my interview.

By the way, I highly recommend the movie Love & Other Drugs. Great movie!!! It just reminds you time is uncertain and we should live for today.

Why are you moving to Korea?

Where to begin? I suppose I shall start from the beginning, seeing how everything within the past two years has lead me to this point in life.


December 2008, I graduated from Iowa State University after 4 1/2 years busting my ass trying to get A's and B's (unfortunately, this didn't really happen), volunteering, being very active in extracurricular activities and of course working to pay those college expenses. Why do all of this? To get into grad school, duh! Although I loved college and the activities I immersed myself into, in the end what it truly boiled down to were your grades (damnit). You would think programs want to make sure they are accepting students with a great work ethic and potential to excel not only in the classroom, but outside as well - this is not necessarily true. Essentially, schools want someone who will not waste their money. I get it, they're financially investing in people - blah blah blah. It's just a little annoying when you know you will truly be great at something and solely because of a number, you're not given the opportunity.


There you have it, that's my rant and now I'm done.


Needless to say, I did not get into any of the five (yes 5) programs I applied to. So what did I do? I went back to school! The first time around, I had a Psychology minor and decided to make this minor into a major. Since one degree is obviously not enough, I started working towards that second B.S. degree. Mmmm, I just really needed to buy time, but since I had already taken most of the classes I was done by December 2009. During these unfortunate months and no direction of where my life was going I explored every possible opportunity. I again looked into grad school, Peace Corps, AmeriCorps, Teach for America, and even real life grown up jobs. In the end, I decided AmeriCorps/Teach for America was the direction I wanted my life to go in. Life changing moment alert: One evening I was having dinner with a great friend, Vanessa, who was looking into teaching English in Korea. I thought, "That sounds like a great opportunity." She tried pretty hard to convince me to go with her, but I had already decided on the second path of my life - helping others. After filling out application after application and waiting to hear back from programs, I finally received great news - not really. I was not accepted into Teach for America and I did not get any jobs from AmeriCorps I wanted or that prevented me from receiving government assistance. On top of this, I found out I did not get into the one COTA program I applied to. There I was, back at square fuckin one.


March/April 2009, Vanessa was still trying to convince me to go and I actually had two other friends on their way to S. Korea to teach. So, then I made the decision, "I'M GOING TO KOREA!" I immediately started the application process, sold everything in my apartment and the rest is history. Now eight months later, I'm moving to KwangJu, S. Korea!!

Why am I going to Korea? After two years of rejection, I am finally moving forward in life and am not just in limbo. No, it may not have been my very first choice, but this doesn't lesson the desire to take part in a once in a life time opportunity. How many people can say they've lived abroad? Not many. Some may not agree with me, but I truly believe things happen for a reason. No, I don't mean things such as certain situations in history or even unfortunate events that have occurred. I mean within my personal life, I feel things have happened for a reason. Lets be real, if I was accepted into grad school or became a Peace Corps member, things would have turned out a little different; not necessarily better, but different.


All in all, I couldn't be more happy and ecstatic about my future. And no people...I don't believe I'm going to die in a North vs. South Korean war. Of course anything is possible and something bad could potentially happen, but if we don't take risk, whats the point of life? There's a risk with everything we do in life; usually the benefits tend to outweigh the "possibility" of something bad happening. Besides, I personally believe N. Korea is just pissed they are not currently receiving aid (blog for another day).