my korean camp experience…

deery-lou.
howdy-ho all. sorry for the delay but i've been having some problems with the site for the past three days. however, everything seems to be working now. YEAH!!

so this past weekend was our ils camp retreat. it was quite unlike camp in the u.s. mainly because we stayed in a high rise. and i was so looking forward to a cozy little korean cabin. the rooms were on big space with a wardrobe, bathroom, and blankets to use as beds, oh my! i actually had a reallly fun time. it was great to play with the children in the water and spend the day out in the sunshine. one thing i did notice is that the korean men show more skin than the woman. all the woman, even though they had on bathing suits, kept their shorts and tops on in the water. go figure. a bit strange but who am i too judge. here's a rundown of the camping life.

friday, august 12, 8am: i arrived at ils with christine and anna. immediately went to holly's to get an ice coffee.

8:30am: the students started to file in

8:45am: i was given my group assignment [chris, peter, erik, ben, mike, james, bryant]

9:15am: my group heading down to board the bus

9:30am: we departed for camp. the camp was held in dogno, asan. apparently there are hot springs in the area although i never had a change to visit them. maybe next time.

10:30am: rest stop tiime. i had to escort zander and jeff to the restroom. afterwards i bought a waffle with syrup and butter spread. very yummy!!1

10:50am: we left the reststop. the students kept giving us all kinds of candy. they sure do like to share.

11:30am: we arrived at camp. we filed out into the blazing heat and lined up in front of the building. here we had to listen to the camp counselors go on and on. i have no idea what was said because it was all in korean.

11:45am: we headed up into our luxury rooms [NOT!]. our beds where blankets on the floor. it was kind of like staying in a youth hostil. actually i think it is a youth hostil.

12:30pm: lunch time. the students had to line up in the hall. here the counselor made them repeat something over and over and finally lead us down to the mess hall. outside of the mess hall the students had to line up again. its all very military-esque. inside the students marched one by one. the got their chopsticks, spoons and then were served food assembly line style. then they were directed to their seats. not realizing that there was a special table for teachers we stood in line with the students to get food. the meal consisted of rice and some kind of gravy sauce, corn, kimchi, a bread patty with ketchup, soup, and a yogurt drink. it was edible to say the least. after eating we filed out and had to give our trays to the clean up crew. this was tricky because if you didn't act fast you ended up getting splattered with bits of food as the man banged the metal tray against the garbage shoot. needless to say i got splashed.

1pm-2pm: this was rest time before going to the pool. i made my bed on the floor on listened to music.

2pm: the students were once again lined up in the hall before going to the pool. then they were lead outside where we stood again for a little bit and then lead off to the pool area. before going to the pool the students had to partake in a mini obstacle course. with so many students it was taking forever. it was fun to watch but i wanted to go to the pool. after the obstacle course they were lead to a pavillion where they had to do some exercises. when the exercises and speeches were over the students had to line up their shoes and then they followed the counselor to the pool area. there was one pool with a current that went in a giant circle, a water slide, and another wading pool for little kids to play. the current pool was probably the deepest of them all. it came up to my neck. i spent most of my day in the current pool. sometimes by myself, sometimes carrying jeff around, and other times just swimming with random students. i made lots of friends with children not from our school too. every once in awhile i'd hear a tiny voice say "hi. what's your name. nice to meet you". i had one kid follow me around for a bit. how cute. as i was going around and around in the current pool i'd watch the lifeguards. the were all very cute. i busted on you kept taking pictures of myself. on one of my passes he was checking himself out in his sunglasses. these koreans definitely like to look at themselves. at one part of the current pool these a stream of hot water that comes out into the pool. i stopped there at every passing. mainly for the hot water which felt good and nothing because the lifeguard stationed there. i should point out that 95% of the people there all had swim caps on and goggles. goggles are a definite must next time cuz there is so much chlorine in that pool that it made my eyes burn. i did go into the wading pool for a little bit but it was too much. i kept getting attacked by students especially sue. when she wasn't asking me to chase her she had a death grip around my neck. all in all a fun day.

5pm: pool time was over. after the students gathered up their shoes and the counselor made sure everyone was there we went back to the room. it was now shower time and rest time before dinner.

6pm: dinner time. back to the mess hall. this time we learned of the special teacher table of food. there was more of a variety and we got to serve ourselves. the food at dinner was pretty decent. there was some kind of cabbage and beef, rice, sweet potato noodles, garlic stems, kimchi, and soup. i got splashed again with food. damn him. after dinner horace and i met the only other foreigner there. his name was sam and he'd only been in korea for 6 months. we talked with him for awhile and then back to our room where we waited for our next outing…the bonfire.

7:10pm: the students lined up again to get ready to go. here we heard more blah, blah, blah from the counselor until we were lead outside and to the area where the bonfire was being held. once it got dark they lite the bonfire. songs were sang, some games and contests were played. i think we were doing fairly well because i kept hearing the mc saying "ils". there was also a dance off for the teachers of the various schools on stage. i got up there we christine, jean, and anna. unfortunately we didn't do too well. i think its because i was too good of a dancer. just kidding. the whole bonfire outing lasted about 2 hours.

9pm: we made our way down to the basement. it was haunted house time. spooky. before going into the haunted basement we had to listen to more blah, blah, blah. this time the guy talking was very strict. he kept yelling at the all the kids to be quiet. finally it was time to go down to the haunted house. i ended up going through the haunted house with daniel attached to my back, peter clinging to one arm, and someone else on the other. it was actually quite comically seeing that i could hardly move. they had people dressed up that would jump out and scare the kids. they screamed through the whole thing.

10:30pm: bed time. i had a hard time trying to sleep. finally with the aid of kristin hersh and my ipod i managed to succumb to sleep.


saturday, august 13, 6:30am: wake up call.

7am: the day started off very early with breakfast. there's nothing like some good old breakfast squid to get you going in the morning. that's exactly what we had plus some kind of egg thing. its truly amazing at how i don't even flinch at that that kind of stuff anymore. you would have thought that i'd be eating squid, kimchi, seaweed, and rice for breakfast. what happened to pancakes and bacon?

8am: it was games time for the students down in the moldy smelling basement. they had to build something with blocks. it was quite boring. to occupy my time i started to make an apartment building.

8:50: off the pool. first stop the pavillion for exercising. bored now!!! today i wanted a raft for the current pool. the only problem was that i had to buy one for 8,000 won. i opted not too. i spent most of the day in the current pool with mike who kept riding on my back. i did manage to get on the waterslide. although no one told me how swallow the pool at the end was. i completely bruised one knee and scraped the other one. i did some time in the kiddie pool too. but again i could only stand it for a little while. those little kids take too much out of you. so it was back to the current pool where i spent the rest of the day having splash and dunking fights with teachers christine and anna, and students kevin, mike, and kevins friend. i must say i had a blast. i'm just a giant kid at heart.

11am: pool time was over. we shuffled back to the room, showered, packed, and waited for the lunch call.

noon: lunch time. it was the same lunch as the day before. although at the teacher table we had some extra stuff. i piled a load of what i thought was noodles and peppers on my plate. to my surprise they were tiny little fishies. i tired them but didn't really like them. however i did like the dried shrimp where you ate the shell and all. very tastey. my now i had mastered the tray handoff and sprint and got to put it to use one more time. i made it through with no food splatter.

12:30pm: we boarded the bus for our return home. i listened to music the whole ride back. most of the students slept. there was no rest stop this time.

2:30pm: we arrive back in ansan. i immediately headed off to taekwondo. class was tough cuz i was really tired. my kwanganim keeps telling me to practice hard.

4pm: we all my camping crap i started to head for home. i stopped at holly's coffee and got a blueberry iyote, which is a frozen yogurt drink. it was soooooo good.

6pm: i watched the interpreter with nicole kidman and sean penn. it was pretty decent.

9pm: bedtime

that's sums up my korean camp experience. coming up…my quest for the mystic pyramid.

be well…




snaps from ils camp

links

• camp

taco bell refried beans

deery-lou.

quick post. i just ate 3/4 of a can of taco bell refried beans. the sad thing is that as i was waiting for my bean quesadilla to cook i was eating the beans right out of the can. i forgot how good they were. not necessary the tb brand but refried beans in general. i should have brought back more cans and a case of flour tortilla. i've been eating them with everything lately.

be well…

p.s. i just got back from school camp. more details to come in my next post. need my rest now.

vacation photos

deery-lou.

how cute are they! so i finally got around to uploading my vaction photos. hope you enjoy!

snaps from florida…

links

• florida

essays

deery-lou.

its tuesday. however, i'm going to write about sunday because i can. don't hate. celebrate.

sunday
started off bright and early. i'm not sure i think the new early bird ethan. although i am managing to get a lot more done and my weekends feel longer. go figure. i started my day off with a hardy boys episode. it had everything one could hope for: witches, black cougars, a mute, and old man jenkins. oh wait, old man jenkins was on the nancy drew episode. anyway you get the point. that shaun cassidy, what a card. playing the goofy younger brother joe. i highly recommend viewing these. its pure 70s wholesomeness at its finiest.

to make my sunday morning even more fantastic i got an email from adawg setting up a phone date for 10am my time. YEAH!! how excited was i. after months and months of getting her answer machine i was finally going to be able to converse with her. i L.O.V.E my little boo/kiki/adwag. she's the best thing that came out of my 5 years at j.a.b. incorp. from the moment i heard her voice i broke out in a smile. she always makes me smile. we had a great talk, covering just about everything from love, sex, to midget mud wrestling. well, actually we didn't get to midget mud wrestling but its almost like we had. adawg has a way of breaking out into different characters when she tells a story. its the best thing ever. i could sit and listen to her for hours. and that just what i did. love ya boo. you're the best.

vickie called and asked if i wanted to go see some photo exhibit. what the hell. i decided to go. i can sit at home any time. plus vick only has a few more weeks until she leaves. i met her at exit 4, city hall stop at 2pm. the exhibit was at the press center. it was by photographer sebastiao salgado and it was titled essays. it spanned his work from early 80s to present. the images were black and white and covered areas all over the world. the exhibit was broken into four rooms, four themes: people, workers, immigrants, and famine. the photos were quite good. there was one in particular that stood out for me: it was from bejing. it was a good of people sitting in a bar next to a bicycle factory. i was hoping there would be a print available to purchase but no such luck. afterwards vickie and i went to insadong to get some lunch. before making our way to the restaurant we stopped at two different shops and bought crap. we both purchased a smurfette holding a frying pan with eggs in it and salt. she came with her own oven. hi oven. they love smurfs here and so do i. vickie took me to a very tiny italian restaurant down an alley. i had linguini with clams in a pesto sauce. who would have thought that it would be so good. IT WAS THE BEST THING EVER!!! those koreans sure can do italian. on my way home i stopped in baskin and robbins. it was all vickies fault. she got one earlier and now i felt the need to have one too. i went for a blue peach cooler, which is kind of like a milk shake. upon leaving the store i noticed that they had a banner in the window with drew barrymore's picture. appartently she's the new br spokesmodel or something. you go drew. i didn notice that they had sweet potato flavored ice cream. me thinks i'm going to have to try that next time. my blue peach was actually very yummy. as my students would say. that pretty much sums up my sunday.

monday and tuesday have been pretty uneventful. it rained on monday. today is was a lot cooler than usual. i walked home from school. it was pretty nice. i wanted to get more of a feel on my new neighborhood. actually i think i'm going to like it here. it seems to be a little more happening than "new ansan ghost town" ever was.

be well…

early bird special…

deery-lou.

deery-lou, the cheerful fawn, says waking up early is not F.U.N. i'm not sure how or why but ever since my vacation i've been waking up super earlier. the whole time i was in sunny florida i never seemed to sleep past 8am. now that i'm in the "land of the morning calm" my internal alarm clock seems to be set for 6am. either i'm completely jet lagged and my sleep pattern is all screwy or i've finally hit that age in life when i start rising early. i so hope it the former. i'm not quite ready to begin every day at "stupid o'clock" in the morning as my friend vick would say. she's actually the one who brought up the age thing. next i'll be scouted out the local restaurants for early bird specials, watching the 6pm news, and then fall asleep in my lazy boy with all the lights and tv on. getting readjusted to my classes was alot easier than i thought. my day now begins at 10am with a special summer class. the one benefit is the free lunch we got now. yummy. i gave all the students disney postcards from florida. they seemed to like them. a couple of them kept yelling and screaming because my hair was very short. its amazing how they simply don't like change. this whole week i've been pretty beat. its also been extremely hot here—florida hot. you step outside and are immediately drenched in sweat. its gross. slowly but surely i'm getting use to my new apartment. i'm still in the process of arranging things and all that stuff. hopefully i'll get it all done today. i did manage to figure out the washing machine. basically i just started pushing buttons and once water came out i was happy. not having a dryer sucks. stuff gets all stiff and hard when hang drying. personally i'm not a big fan of stiff underwear. although after a year i'm sure i won't care anymore. i do miss not having carrefour right next door. we have a couple of little markets. they're alot cheaper than carrefour but they don't have all the goodies i'm use too. but as long as they have milk, eggs, beer, chips, soda, etc. [which they do] then i'll be fine. i can't wait til it gets a little cooler so i go explore this area. it actually has a lot more character than where i was before. i'm looking forward to finding lots of hidden treasures.

i had my first taekwondo class yesterday in over a week or so. it was me and the kwanganim. needless to say i didn't remember my poomses to well. i forgot a couple of moves here and there. the one and one class actually went pretty good. i really like my master. he makes me feel comfortable. although yesterday when i was practicing i watched myself in the mirror and thought how i looked like a complete dork. how come some people look cool in the uniform but not me. i've got a lot of training to do before october. thats the first time for black belt testing. i'm not sure if i'm going than or in december but i'll keep you posted. last night i watched an episode of the hardy boys. i forgot how good it was. i so love the opening credits of them running through the maze. hee hee. i am a dork. its these little things that give me such joy. time to get back to decorating my apartment.

be well…

pembroke pines

deery-lou.

the drive back to my sister was much better. most likely because i had my newly purchased ipod and with the adapter that i bought at target i was able to play music through the cassette player. oh how i love technology. to top off the trip back i had a chickfilet sandwich. oh how i missed them. i spent the next couple of days hanging out at my sisters playing with my niece and nephew. they are so cute. on thursday zoe and i went to to their neighborhood pool with the children and spent a few hours. swimming in a pool never felt so good. plus i had my newly purchased swimsuit from target. i finely have a bathing suit that fits. no more worring about it falling off as i jump into the pool. hee hee. later that day zoe took me to a comic book store where i bought nightwing year one. it was actually a pretty cool store. that had lots and lots of action figures where i found myself completely lost in them all. afterwards we stopped at hooters and picked up some chicken wings for dinner. hooters. need i say anymore. my brother-in-law, greg, managed to score a hotel room for zoe and i in south beach for friday night. we left for south beach around 2pm and got there a little before 3pm. we checked in and immediately hit the streets. the hotel was quite nice. all marble floors and counter tops. very chic. the guys that owns it is only 25. they were very nice. we walked around ocean drive for a bit that settled into the clevelander for a few cocktails and muchies. it was really nice to be able to just sit and chat with my sister. after our drinks we went for a walk on the beach. thats when we decided to high tail it back to the hotel and change into our suits. with suits on we headed back the beach. we spent the next hour or so floating around in the water. it felt like bath water. it was so nice. that night we went to a low key cuban restaurant called puerto sajous [spelling?]. the food was absoulutely amazing and very inexpensives. we shared a cuban sandwich, a ground beef dish, fried plantains, beans and rice. yum fest. we also had a glass a shangria that had fruit cocktail from a can in it. classy i tell you. after dinner we did some more walking around and then went back to the hotel. we were both beat. on saturday we hit the beach around 9am. we rented some chairs and stayed there for a couple of hours before we had to check out at noon. it was such a great day on the beach. the weather was perfect. after checking out we went to the urban outfitters which i discovered on friday night. it was so great to be in an urban outfitters. i bought a few things and then we went to the 11st dinner for brunch. they had the best pancakes ever!! we got back to zoe's house around 3pm. i borrowed greg's car and ran to toys r us and publix. i had to do a toy r us run. i miss toys. i even brought down and bought an action figure. hee hee. i went to bed fairly early since i had to be up at 5am to catch my flight back to korea. on sunday i got to the airport around 5:30am. i checked in and was all ready to depart. everyting was going on schedule. we boarding the plane at 6:30am for a 7 am flight. and then it all went to hell. we sat there for a half hour not moving. finally around 8am they made an announcement calling for a doctor. apparently one of the flight attendents passed out. they asked for all the passengers going to japan to come to the front of the plane. we deboarded the plane and they were going to find us another flight out because at this point we weren't going to make our connections in newark. they found a northwest flight for us to detroit and then on to japan. so far so good. when the woman from northwest appeared at the counter we got in line. the old hag immediately snapped at us asking what we were doing in the line. we told her our story and she was like "this flight is booked so i don't know how you're getting on." which was a lie. several people were arguing with her and she just wasn't friendly at all. when it was my turn she said i had a reservation for the detroit and japan flights but none for korea. she then said she wasn't going to book it for me and that i had to go back to continental. at this time the guy from continental came over and the two of them had words. not a very pretty scene. i told the guy what she said and he printed me out a piece of paper with my iternary on it to show her. when i got back to northwest i was at the end of the line. now there was another woman there who was just as friendly as the old hag carol. when the couple in front of me got to the counter she told them that they didn't have a reservation and weren't getting on the flight. then she grabbed my ticket and said the same thing. i told her that carol said i had a reservation. she ignored me and said "i have to get this flight ready to go." then she left. as she walked away i said "son of bitch" really loud cuz i was pissed. she looked at me from the boarding gate and said "now you're definitely not getting on this flight" and shut the door. meanwhile our luggage when placed onto the norhtwest flight. back at the continental counter myself and the other couple were absolutely pissed. i couldn't believe this all just happened. there were no other flights leaving for japan that we would make on sunday. we had two options. spend the night in miami or take a flight to newark and spend the night there. i decided to go to newark so that i didn't have to worry about making my connection on monday. so off i went. the folks at continental were kind enough to give us some food vouchers and placed me in first class on the flight to newark. at newark i went to the customer service and got my hotel voucher and more food vouchers. i had to spend the night in the holiday inn in newark. i thought about going into new york but was just too tired and seeing that i didn't have any other clothes i thought it best not too. i spent the day watch the top 100 child stars on vh-1. i also spoke with misty for almost two hours. hee hee. the next day things went a little more smoothly. i called continental and they said my bag was in japan. however, when i arrived in japan they had no sign of my bag. seeing that i had 5 minutes to board my flight to seoul i couldn't really do anything until i landed in seoul. the 2 hour flight to seoul seemed to last forever. at this point i just wanted to get there and go to my apartment. of course once i landed there was no sign of my bag so i filed a claim and then boarded a bus for ansan. another 2 hour trip. i finally got back to my apartment around 10 pm. i was beat. world traveling is hard! my first day back at school was pretty uneventful. i was just a wee bit tired. it actually felt good to be back. i misssed the kids.

footnote: i attempted to call northwest to claim but since they didn't have a 1-800 number i had to use my callilng card. well it took them about 20 mins to even answer the call. when i finally got to speak to someone she was very unsympathic. bitch! i started to get into it with her and then the phone card ran out of minutes. go figure. all she kept saying was "i'm sorry". whatever. once i get settled here i'm going to email them. in the meantime i advise everyone not to fly Northwest. they are rude and uncaring people. and if you are ever in miami international airport find carol and adriana and send them my love.

be well…

p.s. my bag arrive at school last night. YEAH!!

hot, hot, heat...

deery-lou.

here it is day 6 of my vacation...and i've done absolutely nothing which feels great. most of the time when i come home to visit i feel like i have to be on the go nonstop. not so this time. my vacation started out last saturday, july 23 at 6am korean time. after a taxi ride, bus ride, 3 planes, and 7 hours of airport terminal waiting i arrived in miami at 10:35 pm. i had been up for a record 30 hours. i couldn't sleep much on the plane no matter how hard i tired. i kept being tempted by all the bad movies that were being shown. here's what i saw: sahara [boring], man of the house [kind of amusing in a bad way], ice princess [don't ask], and some stupid show where they switch lives for a day. on that show melissa rivers switched with some surf bum. why do i watch this crap? i know going into it they're not going to be any good but that doesn't stop me. i also got in a few rounds of solitaire and tried some other games. although i will confess it took me 20 minutes to figure out the controls. overall the flight was pretty uneventful. i thought being back in the states would feel strange but it really doesn't. it pretty much feels like i've never left. the only thing is that now when i'm out i can understand what people are saying. i think i like it better the other way. some people can be so damn obnoxious. on sunday morning i spent some time with my sister's family before heading off to orlando. davis, my nephew, wanted to watch me do everything from pea to shaving to showering. he'd come into my room point at everything and ask "what's that". at one point i had davis and paige listening to my "let's learn korean" tape. it was so cute watching them try to pronounce the words. they might actually learn it before me. both paige and davis are absolutely adorable. [footnote: davis is here now helping me type. he keeps saying "i messed it up again" as he hits random keys]. and baby morgan is the cutest ever. the drive to orlando was three long hours. trying to find a decent radio station was quite a challenge. the next two and half days was spent with my parents and grandma. my parents looked good, especially my dad. it was good to see that he didn't let his surgery get the best of him. my grandmother on the other hand looked old. she definitely not the same woman who's house i'd stop at on the way home from school. unfortunately thats life. at least she seemed in good spirits. my visit with my folks was good. we didn't really do much but hang at home but that was fine with me. mom and i did manage a target a run. we tend to do that every time i'm in town. it was a fun little outing and mom even bought me a t-shirt. how sweet is that. i even managed to see a few of my friends while i was in town. tracy, karen, hillary, and i all went out monday night for some beers. then on tuesday we were joined by teri. it felt like i was back in high school or something. it was really great seeing all of them. i had a great time. before leaving to go back to my sister's on wednesday i had the BIG talk with my parents. i wanted to do it on the first day but couldn't quite get the courage. on wednesday i felt it was now or another year from now and i felt that it was about time that knew. i always had a feeling that they knew but i still felt like i had to tell them myself. it was quite emotional as i started to tell them. i actually even started to cry when my dad hugged me. i didn't realize how hard it would be to get the words out. deep down i knew that nothing would change but one still can't help to think that they might be disappointed or look at you differently. my dad and i stood there for awhile just hugging. i was more scared of his reactions then my moms. i knew my mom would be fine. my dad was the wildcard. he told me that he loves me no matter what. it was good to hear. i gave my mom a hug and then we all walked outside. i hugged them both goodbye and then drove off. it felt like a great weight was lifted off my shoulders. the "coming out" and seeing the house at 386 new waterford place for the last time was like finishing a chapter of a book. there were a few times when i brought out and started crying as i drove donw the florida turnpike. but it was good cry because i finally feel like i can now be me. here's looking ahead to a new and exciting future. i can't wait to see what lies ahead.

be well...

news flash!

deery-lou.

apparently the slightly bigger apartments on the second floor are no longer available. curious. that leaves only one smaller one open and the entire third floor. after weighing all the pros and cons i decided to go with the bigger one on the third floor. hopefully i won't regret this choice. but space is space and as need as much as i can get. plus i had a better vibe from the bigger apartments. i'll make it work. i just work answer my door…EVER!!! also our moving date has moved from friday to thursday morning. its power cleaning time. oh yeah!!!

moving count down: 2 days

be well…

i've seen the future…

deery-lou.

and its very small with a yellow floor that looks like wallpaper. its my new mini-apartment. the korean fantasy lifestyle is coming to a close. i'll soon be living like most other teachers in on big room. on saturday jk took us to see this lovely new abode. can we say almost on the other side of town. instead of being 5 minutes away from school i'm now 30 mins away. to top it all off i've lost my separte shower space. my new shower is basically the entire bathroom. the shower nozzle is above the bathroom sink. its definitely going to be interesting. gone is all the neon building. its almost like i'm going to me in a little neighborhood of sorts. i'm definitely trying to be optimistic about the whole thing. on the bright side i believe i'm getting an apartment on the second floor. at least i won't be living right next door to my boss. i spent all day sunday packing. its amazing how much crap i accumulated over this past year. and i'm kind of worried about how i'm going to fit it all. i can't believe i'll be heading to florida on saturday. its crazy. i'm still not sure whats up with my return flight. at this point i think i have a seat leaving miami on july 30 arriving in japan on the 31st but no flight to korea. it would have been much easier for them to say "take an extra day". but no. my apartment now looks like carrefour throw up in it seeing that most of my stuff is packed into carrefour shopping bags. my taekwondo schedule is changing slightly for august. since its summer vacation time they have a different schedule. unfortunately i'm not able to make any of the classes since my schedules changes in august too. so now i have to meet my master on saturdays from 2-3 until the end of august for one on one training. i definitely think i'm improving somewhat. still working on the kicks though. most of this week is going to be spent cleaning my now bare apartment. on good thing is that i'm already packed for my trip so at least i don't have to worry about that. little does my sister know but most of the stuff i'm bringing with me is going to stay in florida. hee hee. thats what family is for though…storing things.

be well…

ugh! i have to move

deery-lou.

yes its true. i must leave my lovely office-tel that i've come to know and love and called home for the last year. why you ask? i think its too expensive for my school plus my boss keeps saying the management is terrible. the new apartment is going to be a lot smaller and on the other side of ansan. goodbye carrefour, goodbye! how will i cope being so far from my favorite shopping spot. moving was the last thing i wanted to do especially before my vacation. now according to "kl" i'll be moving july 22 the day before i leave for miami. which means i have to move in the morning so i can be at school by 1pm. at least i should be thankful that i don't have a lot of crap to move. to make matters even worse my boss and christine are both moving into the same apartments building and all of our apartments are next to each other. hi lack of privacy. i'm not sure why this bothers me so much but it does. i don't care if we are all in the same building but neighbors. come on! i have to seen them all day do i really want to be living right next door. NO!! my biggest fear is that they are going to what to hang out all the time. it kind of feels like i'm moving into a dorm. i'm going to ask jk if its possible to get an apartment on a different floor. i want to feel like i have a "safe" place to go. kind of like i'm away from the others.

not sure if i mentioned this or not but i'm heading to miami/fort lauderdale for my vacation to visit family. its going to be a short 6 days but i'm definitely looking forward to it. i didn't even get to say goodbye to my family in person before leaving for korea so it will be nice to see them. and i'm excited to see my new niece morgan. i've only seen photos of her so far. its definitely going to be strange stepping foot in the u.s. my parents are also moving to arkansas so this is always like my final farewell to orlando and my home. i'm going to try to see some friends in o-town while i'm there which will be good. its so strange to think that i won't be going to o-town anymore for the holidays. i always just figured my parents would be there forever. guess i was wrong. at least when i'm in fort lauderdale in the future its semi-close to o-town so i can make a trip to visit friends. i still have a couple of great friends there who i enjoy seeing when i'm in town. anyway…so i'll be on u.s. soil from july 23 to july 30/31. i'm still not sure when i'm leaving since i screwed up my return flight. i was suppose to fly back on july 30 but instead i booked it for july 31. oops. that means i wouldn't get back to korea until aug 1 and miss all my classes. another oops! we're trying to get them to change the dates but so far no luck. not like i really care cuz i'd love to have that extra day. i was going to try to get to sf while i'm in the u.s. but it didn't work out. not enough unfortunately which is probably for the best. i'm sure if i went back to sf i wouldn't want to leave again. i have a sinking feeling that year 2 in korea is going to be a bit more difficult than year 1.

be well…

las vegaas a go-go

deery-lou.

where do i even begin? thursday night was our big school dinner where i thought we were going to talk about the "problems" that some people have been having. earlier in the day my boss told us that we were going to meet two surprise guests. whats that all about? i love how they throw things like this in at the last minute. "kl" never fails. after school horace, christine, and i met the others at my favorite bbq place. madame kalbi wasn't there which was too bad. i always love seeing her. anyway we found the others and joined them. i was so hungry that it felt like the meat was taking forever to cook. once we were seated jk wanted to tell us about the mystery guests. what it comes down to is this. jk's wife doesn't want the school anymore and he was thinking about selling it. instead he found two investors. his best friend and that guy's friend. so as of friday jk signed papers turning the school over to himself. jane is no longer part owner of the school. and now we have two investors who are going to be hands off. their initial investment is just for a year and after that who knows what is going to happen. jk seems happy about this new situation. i could tell he didn't want to give up the school. hopefully things will work out. for now it looks like things are going back on schedule. jk also told me that night that he got divorced. this was something that i suspected but didn't really know for sure. now i do. shortly there after the two guys showed up and we were all introduced. they spoke a little english which was good. once they arrived the soju bottles started coming full force. i did good at first nursing the soju but shortly it turned into doing shot after shot with these two guys. jk's best friend, mr. kim, wanted to go disco dancing. so off we went to find a club. so much for a quiet thursday night. we ended up at las vegas club where mr. kim was a vip. this club was similar to that of the kiss club i went to awhile ago. a bunch of tables, a stage for performers and djs, and dancing go-go girls. this had disaster written all over. we settled into a table that was right in front of the go-go dancer. within a matter of minutes there was a fruit plate, bottles of beer, and whiskey on our table. it didn't take long until we were doing shots of whiskey. someone help me! i don't even like whiskey but there was doing shot after shot and chasing it strawberry milk. don't ask. it seemed odd to me too but hey i'm in korea so why not. mr. kim and his friend are uber friendly. kind of like octopuses since there hands were all over us. i think he patted my ass at least 4 times. drag me out on the dance floor 3 times where he proceded to dance with me. yet another odd korean thing. these guys definitely like to have a good time. at one point the woman who was serving us brought over two girls. was i being set up? i really wasn't sure. i quickly made my way to the restroom and when i returned the girls were gone. our new investors were both amazed at my age saying i looked so long. then they asked if i was married. now that they know i'm not they want me to get married. i tried to tell them that none of my friends at home were married but that wasn't good enough for them. then mr. kim told me that he wanted to go hiking and camping next time. ok. that was all i could really say. the bands that played were pretty awful but i made the best of it. the drinks kept coming and coming too. good thing dancing was involved because i think i danced off a good majority of the drink. at one point everyone was gone except for me, young, christine, anna, and jean. horace went home and jk and his two friends were last seen walking outside. what we found out the next day was that they went outside to talk and ended up getting into a fight we some people outside. that's why they didn't come back. mr. kim's friend got hit so they went home. sometime during the evening christine and anna were talking to me about school or something but i couldn't really understand what they were saying. hopefully it wasn't too important. we continued to drink more. both anna and young left so it was just the three of us. shots of whiskey still being consumed. at one point i started to pour my shots into an empty glass when they weren't looking. there was no way i was drinking more. by this time both girls were passing out on the couch. workers from the bar kept coming over to us. jean disappeared into the restroom. and christine laid there passed out. one of the bar workers was trying to get me to take her to a hotel room. we really didn't understand one another and he brought over some customer who tried to play interpretor. talk about chaos. eventually jean returned and we managed to get christine up. it was time to leave. i made sure that they both got into a cab and then i headed home. it was 4am by the time i reached my apartment.

needless to say friday was a very long day. i was exhausted all day long and i also had taekwondo to attend that night. jk told us that his two friends had a great time and that they want to do this at least twice a month. i just stared at him. i don't know if i can handle another night like this. and if so we should do it on a friday night instead. i barely made it through tkd and when i got home i went immediately to bed. so now its almost 6pm on saturday and i've done absolutely nothing. its actually been raining today so i don't really feel like i wasted my day. anyway thats my story and i'm sticking to it.

be well…

sisterhood photos

here i am with the acting mayor and the rest of the sisterhood cult.

team duranduran. whats up with my expression? scary!

summer of…tvs?

deery-lou.

picture if you will your average city neighborhood conveince store. image that in front of every 7-11, white hen, 24-7, handy way, wawa, etc. there are plastic chairs and a table with an umbrella. places for you to sit an savor whatever beverage you so desire and perhaps have a smoke or tv. now picture as you look at the store window there's a giant flat screen tv for you too watch. thats what summer is like here. however, the tvs don't stop at the conveince stores. the electronic shops and others all have tvs for you to view as you are walking by. this country is definitely focused on one thing…televisions. the other morning on my way to carrefour there were two men sitting as such a table having rice drinks. when i walked by one of them said hello. then asked me to join them for a drink. unfortunately i didn't have much time since i had to run to the store and then get ready for work. so i had to politely decline. summer…brings us the friendliness is one and all. that that same day as i'm in the elevator on my way to taekwondo a man got on at the 5th floor. he said hi and asked where i was from. we had a lite conversation. he handed me a magnet for the dry cleaners he works at. as we were exiting the building he asked my name. he then pulled out his "name card" told me his name was sun and to call him. hello random. thats what my days have been like lately. filled with random folks wanting to chat.

i'm sure you are all wondering "how did i do on my test?" well, i don't know. my kwanjangnim hasn't said anything about it. this week the kids in my class are all at camp so its just been me and the two sabomnims. the one that wanted me to teach him english is no longer at my school. we now have a new girl sabomnim who started this week. i realized tonight that i need to work on my kicking. i can't seem to get as high as they want me too. "practice makes perfect", thats what my kwanjangnim said tonight. as of today the magic straight look is now gone for good. i couldn't handle it anymore. or actually should i said i really didn't know what to do with it. no matter how much product went into my hair it always managed to just go limp. i guess i'm just not meant to have straight hair. plus as the guy who cut my hair today said, "magic straight has no volume." he did tell me that i was handsome and that i also had a handsome head which worked well with short hair. i'm now sporting a psuedo-ethan cut with a korean military twist. everyone from the teachers at school to my kwanjangnim remarked on my new military cut. they just don't like change here. most of my students screamed and freaked out. one said i looked like a monster, another called me gorilla ethan, and one said i looked like brad pitt. their answers are all so random it kills me. thursday night i have to miss taekwondo to go to a school dinner meeting. we have to discuss some ill well that has been floating around. luckily it doesn't really concern me but i still have to attend. should be interesting. hopefully there will be lots of soju to consume. i think i might need a bottle or two.

there's a need to celebrate too! after two plus years i have finally finished house of leaves. I KNOW!…i can't believe i've actually finished that book. it has haunted me for so long now that i didn't think i'd ever be done with it. although i must confess i really have no idea what really happened in that book. i'm still like…uh what? i even went to the website to read some of the discussion boards but it was all too much. books that make me think hurt my brain. i think i'll stay with the likes of the hardy boys instead. thats more my speed. actually i would love to take about house of leaves so if any of you out there have read it send me your thoughts. i'm sure theres a lot more to the book but i don't feel like reading the vast amount of posts about it. i've now moved onto the kelly slater autobiography. its not the best written book i've ever read but its still somewhat interesting. especially considering a surfer from florida was a six time world champion. plus he was on baywatch and dated pam anderson. it also seems to fit in with my favorite movie blue crush but in written form. i loved that movie. since i mentioned pam i must say did anyone else watch stacked. i must say i kind of liked it. it was no v.i.p but i sure do enjoy watching pam on tv. there's just something about her. now if they'd only release v.i.p on dvd. here's to wishful thinking. i hope everyone had a great 4th of july.

be well…

p.s.

deer-lou.

it's amazing how the simpliest action can make one happy. i went to carrefour to buy a big umbrella since the rainy season is upon us. as i entered one of my classmates from taekwondo was there. he came running up to me and said hello. i chatted with him for a bit, said hi to his mom and brother then went on my way. it made be feel good. the kids here are so great.

be well…

il, e, sam, sa, o

deery-lou.

i've been meaning write ever since tuesday but for some reason never quite did it. perhaps its the muggy heat that reminds me of my youth in florida. the days when one would step out of their house and immediately be drenched in sweat. the goodtimes are here. its probably a good thing that i didn't write because i was a little stressed out this week. at tuesday's taekwondo class my kwanjangnim told me that on saturday there would be a test to determine whether or not i'd be ready to take my black belt test in october. it seems kind of strange since its 3 months away but what do i know. the test saturday would consist of doing kicks and random poomse from 1-5. this meant i really needed to learn the names of these poomses. every since i can remember i've hated having to do things in front of people. speech class always freaked me out and this was no different. especially since my master's master and another man were going to be doing the judging. of course during the week i'm thinking up all of these reasons to stop doing taekwondo: i'm not motivated, i can't kick that high, etc. they're all basically crappy excuses. on thursday we had a practice test i messed up on poomse 3 which really made me mad since i do know it. sometimes i think i psych myself out to mess up. i left class that night feeling mad at myself. came home and made a soju cocktail but that didn't really seem to help too much. friday's class we practiced some more and did lots of kicking too. friday is when they told me we'd get to break boards too on saturday. fun.fun.fun. i kept imagining all the little kids around me breaking theirs while mine stays intact. friday night i met horace for some beer who needed to vent about school. this week they told us we had to plan out our teaching schedule two weeks in advanced. what sucks is that horace and i use to give the students weekly spelling tests. now they're taking the spelling tests away from us and having the korean teachers give it to them. we have to read these stupid decodable books. so things were a bit crazy there because had to come up with a completely new plan.

saturday morning i woke up at 7am. panic struck me. today was the day. i had to take my test in front of these grandmasters. am i going to have to do it myself? what if i mess up? all these questions kept popping up. it was driving me crazy. its amazing how worked up one can get. i watched a little bit of tv. that helped for awhile. tried reading too. i actually stayed in bed until noon. around 1pm i started to exercise and practice my poomses. calling them by the korean cardinal numbers [il, e, sam, sa, o]. nothing like cramming at the last minute. i had to be at school by 3pm. my kwanjangnim wanted me to watch the younger kids do there test. my test group wasn't scheduled until 5pm. the practice space was crammed with children waiting to take their test and parents watching. noone said there'd be parents! i sat in the corner with the students. with so many people in there it was hot, hot, hot. when the tow judges came in one looked really really mean. just like in the tv shows. the tested the kids in groups according to their level. as i sat there the kids around me kept asking me question after question. the main one being how old are you? whats your name. and of course throughout the testing they all kept staring. hey look at me i'm a circus freak!!! after the testing was done they came up in groups again to break the boards. it was actually a cute little ceremony. the kids would line up and then their mom or dad would stand in front of them. they'd hug. then the child would get down and bow. the child would then stand up the parent would grab the board and they'd get in position. the kwangjangnim would give the command and then the child would punch the board. followed by more hugging. all very cute. i should mention that there was one little girl there you had princess lea hair. she was sooo cute. especially watching her do her poomses. kids are great. when that was done we had to listen to the grandmaster give a speech. for me it was like 20 mins of listening to charlie brown's teacher talk. some awards were given and then the two grandmasters stepped out. thats when the kwangjangnim busted out the giant jump rope. it was now time for the parent/child jump roping contest. it was quite funny watching these moms and dads holding their childs hand and jump roping. everyone was getting into it. the whole event lasted 1 hour and 40 mins. and now it was time for my group.

so there i am sitting through this whole process for a second time. the opening exercises, the opening speech, etc. by this time i wasn't really nervous anymore. instead i was tired. i was part of the second group to test. there were three of us. we started off doing punches. the only problem with that was i had no idea what the other two kids were saying so i said nothing. then we did kicking. after that i had to do poomse 5 while the other two did a different number. i think i did all right. afterwards i had to sit while the other two did another poomse. when they were done my kwanjangnim told me to stand. then the mean judge looked at me and told me to sit down. apparently he wanted the two kids to do it again. when they were done for the second time he went off for about 10mins. i have no idea what he said. when he was finished we joined the rest of the kids against the wall. there two more groups after ours. one of the judges had to leave so we skipped the boards and jump rope for the time being. the mean judge who had to leave gave out the awards, said soemthing and then left. the other judge before leaving gave a 20 min. speech which we had to lsten to while standing. when he left the kids who had parents there got to break boards. the rest of us didn't. not fair. noone told me i had to have a parent there to participate in the breaking of boards. when that was done the jump rope was busted out again. our testing lasted under an hour. my the time i left i felt completely exhausted. thats what happens when you get yourself all worked up. looking back it really wasn't as bad as i thought. at least this will prepare me for when i eventually do go for my black belt. i still have no idea how i did. hopefully we'll find out on monday. the sabomnim shook my hand on the way out. not sure if that meant you did a good job or just being friendly. for dinner horace and i went to see madame kalbi [bbq lady] who we haven't seen in forever. as usual it was an awesome meal. she has the best and freshest sidedishes ever! it never fails that every time we are there she gives us something free. last night it was a bottle of coke and some cold noodle soup which was delicious. i so heart her.

its raining today. i spent my morning doing some cleaning. nothing too exciting. i'm going to meet my friend hyun sik later. this is definitely a weekend of no cooking at home. i love that. especailly since its so inexpensive to go out. that's it for now.

be well…

whiteboard art

deery-lou.

here's some artwork that found its way to my whiteboard last week. enjoy!


my ethan by chris

a drawing by peter

this is suppose to be me and anna teacher by isabella

thank you

daebudo

deery-lou.

YEAH! to snapfish for finally added a slideshow feature. its about time. i do like a good slide show when viewing photos. hope you do to. now onto business. my weekend has come and is slowly on its way out. boo hoo. friday night i got to spar with one of the kids in my taekwondo class. its wasn't my buddy cha-won. instead i had to spar with the tall kid. he was so not wanting to do it. they are alway so nervous to be paired up with me. i had to practice kicking earlier with one of the girls and she was nervous too. i know i'm tall and white with blue eyes and blonde hair but come on. me not that scary. after class i met up with my friend hyunsik in jungangdong. we went to my favorite bar which i call the "batcave". we got a pitcher of beer and some sidedishes. our sidedishes included: sausages and veggies [more like hotdogs cut into octopus shapes], sweet and sour pork [which was delicious], and hwa chae [which is cut off fruit in some kind of liquid served with ice]. i must say i was a bit septical of the hwa chae but it was very refreshing and good. who knew. the evening ended rather early which was good since i had to be up at 11am to meet bae jung-bae.

bae showed up at 10:45am. just as i was on my way to get a pepsi. damn. why do they have to be early. so he greets me with a hi mr. ethan and into the car i go. we head to his apartment to pick up his family. not sure why they didn't come in the first place. oh well more kl for you. when we get to his apartment his wife and two sons are standing outside. i get to greet them. the oldest son gets in the car while his wife and second son remained on the sidewalk. they weren't coming with. once the older son got into the car the younger one started to cry. i think i might have scared him. off we were. daebudo or bust. bae told me there was three stages to our trip. i love how they have stages. conversation was very minimal the whole day. my korean sucks and bae's english is limited. he did have a bunch of questions written out and prepared for the day. occasionally he'd grab his pad and ask me a question. it was cute.

stage 1: our first stop was on the shiwa embankment bridge. there i saw some boats and fishes. i love korea for the mere fact that even along a bridge there are snack tents everywhere. these people sure do like to eat. from there we went to gubondgo coast on daebudo. there we saw the tidelands which are all over the island. when it's low tide its low tide. i couldn't even seen the sea water at some places. its all in the tidelands that people are out digging clams and and crabs. its very mudding. there were people all along the shore with a tent set up with their stuff while they were out in the mud. it's so great because its alot of families out doing this. digging in the mud and getting all dirty. i really wanted to get all in the mud but i didn't. we strolled along the beach. at one area there were all these tents with women eating. at the end was a little restaurant. a little farther we came across a barb wire fence and a road. the gate was opened for people to walk through and the sign gave warning to let you know it was a military area. thats one of the strangest things about being here. all the military posts. at the end of the road there's more rocky beach and off to the left was gubongiseondol, two large rocks. this is the site for daebudo sunset sight 4. hee hee. i love how they have names for this stuff. the smaller rock is called halmaebawi and the larger one is harabaebawi. you can see a picture of them in my link. even though it was far from sunset they were still cool to see. the muddy tidelands, rocks and boats out in the distance was amazing. its really kind of hard to explain how i felt. there was something about it that felt calming, almost mystical. i don't know. after walking around gubongdo we got back into the car and continued our journey. next stop was lunch. we had noodles and seafood soup. not sure what its really called. it was filled with clams, squid, and some other sealife that i have no idea. i sat next to bae's son. which i should mention that a couple of times throughout the day he grabbed my hand when walking. little kids are so cute. he's about 7, the same age as some of my students. he was adorable. after lunch we walked over to this island. apparently when the tide is low you can get out there. the first part of the journey was through the squishy mud. it was like going through the mud walk at john stevens planetarium in florida. while on the little island bae caught a crab and gave it to his son. he carried it around for awhile as if it was his pet. there wer so many hermit crabs there. big ones, little ones it was cool to see them all. there are also these strange water bug that look like roaches. i don't like them so much. beofre heading back to the car bae's son left his new friend behind. i guess he didn't want to bring him back to ansan.

stage 2: stage 2 consisted of a brief stop at the english village ansan camp. english camps are where students go for a week or two and speak nothing but english. they have various scenarios set up to make the students feel like they are in america. we didn't get out of the car it was more of a drive by. it was kind of set up like a university campus. i saw a basketball court, soccer field, and a swimming pool. at the front entrance in giant letters is ENGLISH. i wanted to ask some questions but bae couldn't really understand me. oh well. we also saw the famous yeongeon bridge. hee hee

stage 3: stage 3 took us to nueseom island lighthouse lookout. it was a pretty far walk to the lighthouse. bae's son and i both had a pepsi before we began our long walk. i think he got one because i did. we're like brothers now. the strangest thing is that bae is 36. we're basically around the same age yet he seems so much older than me. i'm i that immature. i think a lot of that has to do with the fact that korean want to look after you. i mean he paid for everything. i tried to offer money several times and he wouldn't take it. i think thats partially when i felt like a child. well that and the fact that bae's son and were playing. anyway once we got to the lighthouse there was a very steep incline we had to climb. by now my sandals had completely dug into my feet and it was very painful to walk. the view from the light was good. although it was a bit foggy out so you couldn't see all these tiny islands that were out in the water. inside they had a simulated boat driving game. both bae's son and myself gave it a try. i almost made to the lighthouse but struck a rock beforehand. oh well. i guess i'm not made to drive a boat. that was the end of stage three. it was now time to head home.

the ride back was pretty much the same as on the way there. very little conversation. although bae did consult his pad a couple of times. and one point he said "let's have a heart to heart". he also told me to call him anytime i had a problem. and then he asked for my clothes size. bizarre. it was definitely cool that he made an effort. there were a couple of times throughout the day that i busted out my korean phrase book too. that thing defintiely comes in handy. bae's son slept the whole way home. when we were approaching my building i told bae where to stop but he said that we were going to dunkin donuts first. so now the three of us were in dd. i tried to get away with only having one donut but bae put a second one on my tray and then a caprisun. thats why i feel so young. its like i'm a son to him. its so strange. outside we parted ways. i thanked him for the day and told him that i really appreciated it. he said it was a fun day and next time we'd go somewhere else. i said ok. i said bye to bae's son and then went home.

i spent most of today [sunday] doing nothing. i read a little. i'm still trying to finish house of leaves. its been two years so far. i'm definitely determined to finish this book. hopefully this will be the year.
watched some tv: korean drama, and big momma's house. took a little nap. did some laundry, wrote some emails, and ate. talk about exciting. it rained most of the day anyway so no worries. sometimes you need to do nothing.

be well…

snaps from daebudo…
Links

• daebudo

how do i get myself into these situations

deery-lou.

i think i joined a korean cult. these members of the ansan sisterhood program or just too much. tonight before heading to taekwondo do i get a call from paul who is in charge of the sisterhood program. he was calling on behalf of jung-bae, the man who wants to take me to daebudo. paul was calling to make arrangements. he wanted to know if i was available on saturday. not really thinking i said i had no plans. which is partly true because my previous plans haven't been finalized. he asked what time i would be available to go to daebudo because jung-bae wanted to take me there. realizing there was no way out of it and being the nice guy i am i told him anytime as long as it wasn't early in the morning. ten minutes later i got a text message and then a phone call from paul. it looks like i'll be heading to the island at 11am with jung-bae and his family. how did this happen. i never really expected him to follow through with the plans. perhaps i got too use to people in america saying we should do this or that and it never happens. not the case here. this people are determined. they always go out of their way to make people welcome. it'll definitely be an adventure. jung-bae, his wife, two son, and i spending the day together. jung-bae's english is not that great so i can only imagine the conversations we'll be having. i guess i'll just have to wait and see.

on other news. things at school have been a bit strange. there's some weird vibe going on that horace and i can't really seem to figure out. it all started around when i declined to teach some extra classes. they want me to work an extra 15 hours a week plus 2 hours on saturday for $4 an hour. i told them that i couldn't manage that. the pay was just too low especially since they were getting half of it. haf anyone. so anyway things have been a strained. the other day horace had a blowout with jk who actually yelled at horace. we tried to ask one of the teachers what was going on and she responded to horace by saying she doesn't want to get involved anymore and just wants to do her job. horace kind of blew up and said some things. in return she went to jk and told him. so much for not getting involved on her part. we now call her judas. to make a long story short jk and horace ended up in the elevator together this morning and seemed to work things out. according to horace he thinks that jk is having some family problems and thats why he's been a bit distance. which is kind of relief. at least we now know he's not mad at us for the extra teaching stuff. we still haven't signed contracts yet and i'm hoping this won't affect that. i really don't want to have to look for another job. although i don't think it'd be too difficult. there are plenty of jobs out there. i'll keep you posted.

i have a little buddy in taekwondo class. his name is tong cha-won. he's always saying hi to me and sitting next to me. its so cute. he tries to talk to me but i only understand a little of what he's saying. the other day he looked at me and said, "ethan, i'm so tired." my response, "me too." then he smiled. i love him. i've been trying to learn poomse 6 which is quite challenging since they actually haven't shown me the moves. i'm trying to copy them as the whole class is doing it. hello. i'm a foreign and don't understand korean please help. hopefully they'll show me some pity and take me through it step by step. the other day my kwanjangnim told me that my black belt test would be october. yikes! he also said that i need to start training really hard. he had me kicking the other day for 20 minutes straight. i was so freaking tired afterwards. i think they're trying to kill me. seriously, i do. tonight the kwanjangnim was sparring with some of the students. it was so funny to watch. he was totally kicking their ass. thankfully time ran out before it was my turn. next time he said i'd have to spar him. he just wants to kick my ass. why can't i spar with the little ones. oh, wait. they'd probably kick my ass too. its a lose lose situation for me.

approx. 32 hours until the island trip. wish me luck!!

be well…

vcds and more

deery-lou.

i can't believe its thursday already. where is the time going? it seems to be flying by. keeping up with my writing has now become a task. what am i doing in my spare time you ask? good question. i have no idea. oh wait yes i do. i'm getting sucked into korean dramas. i've also discovered a new passion vcds [video cds]. i've mentioned them before and now that i know they work on my computer i can't stop buying them. i watched one last night that had my favorite actor from love's pinwheel cha in-pyo. the movie was called iron palm. overall not the best movie i've seen but it was entertaining to say the least. it also had the korean actress from lost kim yoon-jin. i like her too. she's so good on lost. i've got 4 more vcd to watch and am sure that i will continue to buy them. hee hee.

on saturday i finally met up with jean. we've been trying to connect for the last 6 months or so. but due to our schedules it never really happened until now. we met up for coffee around 5ish. it was really great to meet her. we have a mutual friend in common jane, who i worked with at the jewish times. talking with jean was almost like talking to a long lost friend. it felt really comfortable. after coffee we went to grab a bite to eat. the food was quite yummy [as my students would say]. jean is a photographer so it was great to talk to her about stuff like that. she also knows alot about the publishing biz here in korea so i was asking her about that. who know perhaps i'll be able to find a job in my field. its too bad we didn't hook up sooner. we got along really now and now i think she's leaving at the end of the month for work again. oh well. at least i know she'll be back since korea is her home. on sunday i met up with my friend hyunksik. we went to gangnam area and had lunch at the pasta place. i was amazed at how good pasta and garlic bread tasted. see what happens when you don't have something in a long time. it taste fantastic. it was really hot on sunday. we walked around gangnam browsing in a bookstore where i bought even more vcds. then we went to get some coffee and air conditioning. when i got back to ansan i was craving pork cutlets so i went to my new favorite pork cutlet place van gogh [i think thats the name]. anyway i went up the stairs to the restaurant only to find it was now a bbq place. sadness. at the bottom of the stairs is another restaurant and i peeked it and noticed that it was van gogh. they had downsized but at least they were still in business. i had the pork cutlet stuffed with cheese. so delicious.

last night i meet up with my ansan city team members. we went out to dinner then went to a bar for some drinks. of course the other foreigner who is suppose to be in our group didn't come. it was a little uncomfortable at first but as time went on it got easier. i did realize that when i'm nervous i talk a lot faster than normal. a couple of times they had to ask me to slow down. i think i understand about 35% of the conversation and vice versa. there's one guy in the group who wants me to teach him english. a couple of times through out the evening chang mo asked if certain words were correct or konglish. i thought that was kind of funny. jung bae wants to take me to daebudo on saturday with his family. i'm not sure if thats definitely going to happen but it will definitely be interesting. at the end of the evening jung bae walked me home because he was the designated escort. he wanted to buy me some doughnuts for breakfast but dunkin donuts was fresh out. imagine that. a dd out of doughnuts. only in korea!

be well…

the sisterhood of ansan

deery-lou.

this week has been pretty uneventful. its been hot and i've been tired. on wednesday i met my friend heather and her boyfriend chris for dinner. since leaving taekwondo class i don't get to see them as much. they're leaving in july so i went down to the oido station to meet up with them. after dinner we went for a pitcher of beer. which in turn ended of being 3 pitchers. it was great to sit outside in the nice weather and kick back with cold beer. i ended up taking a cab home which i barely remember. needless to say the next at school i was worthless. i even skipped my taekwondo class. oops. when i showed up on friday my kwanjangnim asked where i was. he thought that i had gotten hurt. i lied and said i had to work late. i have a new favortie in my class. its this chubby boy with a mullet. he's always saying hi to me and smiling. he makes me laugh cuz he's always getting in trouble. he's told me his name twice but i can never remember it. i'll have to ask him again on monday. i was up early on friday because i have a meeting to go to. i signed up for the ansan sisterhood program which is about establishing friendly relationships with foreigners in ansan. i figured why not. what could it hurt. so i had to be at the healthcare center at 9:30. when i got there it was quite empty. i went in and they gave me my name tag and showed me to my table. i was at english team 1 and according to the sign there was going to be one other foreigner at my table and 8 korean city workers. this was definitely going to be interesting. as the time went on more people started coming in but they were all mostly the city workers. there were maybe 10 foreigners tops. the other foreigner at my table never showed. so it was me and my new found city worker friends. they were asking questions and vice versa. at one point we were all passing out our "name cards" [business cards] as they call them. it was quite comical. i did get a map of ansan which is a lot bigger than i thought. there's even a little island about an hour or so away. my new friends were pointing out different things to me and one even said he'd take me to daebudo, the island. how nice is that. they've also recently built a race track in ansan. in october they're having their first event there…champansan. i just might check it out. it seems like the city is really pushing it. they're hoping it will bring lots of tourists. seeing that i never made to the daytona 500 i should definitely check out the racing in korea. goodtimes. during the meeting we had to listening to some several speakers, get pictures taken, and watch a movie on ansan. i did get to meet the mayor you gave all the foreigners a certificate and a present. then we all had our pictures taken with him. hee hee. then i found out that my team would have to meet up a couple a times a month. what? yeah. they're taking this pretty seriously. so we had to come up with a team name. the leader kim chang-ma decided to call our group team duran-duran. once that was decided they all yelled out "team duran-duran" and clapped. they get very excited. our first meeting is next wednesday at 8:30pm. here are the events we have planned for future meetings: talking, conversation, eating, drinking, sightseeing, playing sports, etc. one of the guys on my team is a member of the basketball team. they actually all seem pretty cool. they have a sense of humor especially kim chang-ma who kept making fun of how koreans always have to have so many speakers at events. once we turned in our form listing our plans we had to have a team photo taken. they certainly love taking pictures. that was when they all noticed the big shoes. "oh what big shoes", they said. i told them i needed them to be taller. they laughed. before we left for the day they all told me to call if i had any problems or questions. people hear are so nice. i can't wait to see what happens on wednesday. at home i opened up my present which was a clock with korean painting on it. very grandmaish and kitschy. i like it. today i'm planning to meet a friend of a friend. my friend jane who i worked with at the jewish times went to grad school with a girl from korea and thats who i'm meeting. we've tried to get together for the last 6 months and now finally we both have time. its always cool to meet new peeps. thats about it for now.

be well…

oh thank heaven for 7-eleven

deery-lou.

so i was poking around on the internet and i found this article about summer and slurpees. i miss my 7-eleven. appartently they are celebrating slurpee 40th anniversary. hopefully one of my friends out there we get a retro slurpee in my honor. i [heart] slurpees!!!

here the article:

The beverage (I guess you'd call it a beverage...) is celebrating its 40th anniversary says this press release:

7-Eleven, Inc. has launched a month-long celebration of Slurpee's 40th birthday on July 11, 2005. To celebrate this iconic brand, 7-Eleven is introducing retro Slurpee cups and flavors in participating 7-Eleven® stores nationwide, airing original Slurpee radio spots from the 1960s, and offering prizes and promotions as part of the Slurpee Summer Prize Fest, including free music downloads and the chance to win one of four MINI Cooper convertibles.
Today, Slurpee is one of America's most recognized brands, but when Slurpee was introduced in 1965 it was a groundbreaking concept that took America by storm. Still served at a chilling 28 degrees, Slurpee enjoys worldwide popularity and is available in 14 countries and U.S. territories.

"A lot has changed since 1965, but not Slurpee. It's the ultimate retro drink, still cool even after 40 years," said Kevin Cooper, 7-Eleven category manager for Slurpee and fountain. "That's why we decided to have some fun this summer with some of the crazy '60s Slurpee flavors like Blue Blunder Berry and Gully Washer."

"Slurpee is truly an iconic American brand," said Wendy Liebmann, founder and president, WSL Strategic Retail. "Slurpee was one of the defining icons of American pop culture in the 1960s. Forty years later, it still resonates with a broad base of consumers who see it as their big chilly drink of choice."

Starting today, 7-Eleven customers can slurp Blue Blunder Berry in June and Gully Washer during July, two retro flavors developed by The Coca- Cola Company. Four color-changing Slurpee mugs feature graphics representing the decades of the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. Tinted bright blue, yellow, orange or green, the 38-ounce refillable mugs dramatically change colors when a cold Slurpee hits the mug, designed to fit any car cup holder. Retailing for $2.49, the price includes the mug, one Slurpee fill-up and free Wonka candy.

All Slurpee customers will be winners during the Slurpee Summer Prize Fest. Throughout June and July, 7-Eleven is giving away one free music download on all standard Slurpee cups. Last but not least, 7-Eleven is giving away four grand prize MINI Cooper convertibles, one for each decade of the Slurpee's 40 years of popularity and each painted a bright Slurpee color. Customers can register to win at participating 7-Eleven stores nationwide or online at http://www.slurpee.com .

"We decided to celebrate Slurpee's birthday by giving our customers a gift -- Slurpees, music and convertibles seemed like a natural fit," said Cooper. "Slurpee lovers can collect both music and cups during the celebration, and if they're really lucky, they might win a car!"

That's all very nice. But what we really want are Slurpee superhero cups!

i agree. bring on the superhero slurpees!!!

be well…

korean-havana nights

deery-lou.

its hot here. i finally caved in and turned on my air conditioning. during taekwondo i was completely drenched. the sabomnim made us jump so much. every time he looked over at me he said "jump, jump". for a minute i thought he was channeling kris kross.
no how much the tkd class pains me while i'm doing it, i aways seem to feel pretty good after. although tonight i ate a sausage sandwich, a chocolate snack, and peanut butter on a banana. not sure why so hungry.

friday night i spent my evening chatting with misty online and listening to bagel radio. ted was having a little summer theme going so i told misty to have him play bananarama's "cruel summer". not sure many people were fond of that song being played but i sure was. hee hee. we chatted until 3am my time and then i decidced i should be off to bed. my saturday was spent eating mcdonalds [i had a break down] and doing absolutely nothing. oh wait, i did manage to get a nap in. around 7pm i met a friend of mine in hongdae. we had dinner and then went to macondo latin bar. it was like stepping into my own korean-havana nights. yes i will admit that i saw havana nights. MISTY MADE ME GO!!! just kidding i actually wanted to see it for some obscure reason. perhaps it has something to do with my interest in latino culture [wink. wink.] it felt so forbidden being there. the dirty dancing of havana finding it's was into the converstive korean borders. actually there are quite a few latino clubs in korea. these koreans just want to dance. they actually served sangria too and it was pretty tastey. there were a lot of older korean men there waiting to ask the young pretty women to dance. some of them were actually pretty good. we stayed for an hour or so and then i called it a night and went back to lovely ansan.

on sunday i had some cold noodle soup and this resturant near gojan station. i went to lunch with my korean friend chris. the soup was very tastey. although next time i need to have them cut my noodles. its very hard to eat noodles with chopsticks. and these sweet potato noodles are quite chewing. i had to break them with my fingers because i can't find the end of noodle. i had so much in my mouth that i thought i was going to gag. nevertheless i prevailed. it funny how the smallest things can make one feel like they accomplished something great. thats what eating chewy noodles with chopsticks is like for me. chris and i hung out for a bit. later i went to carrefour to get some supplies. while in there i brought down and bought two korean movies that are on video cds. they cost about $4 bucks each. hopefully they'll work in my computer. one definitely said it had english subtitles the other didn't. i'm taken a gamble but i wanted to get it because it had an actor from "love's pinwheel" in it. hee hee. i'm such a dork sometimes. i've also been watching this sitcom called "guys & girls" every friday morning at 10. i love korean shows.

anyway…after having some dinner mcdonalds again. i know bad. when i fall i fall hard. but i think its out of my system again. i really wanted a crepe but the crepe lady wasn't there. so i got the big mac. sadness. i spent the rest of the evening watching 4 episodes of "popular". I LOVE THAT SHOW!! i was laughing so much. it made me feel so good. there was even one episode that i hadn't seen pretty that was a riot. here are some quotes:

mary cherry: "the career test said that i'd be a serial killer."

mary cherry's t-shirt: "prada or death"

nicole juilian: "i've given her a blowout that would have straightened the pacific coast highway" [this was about april tuna's makeover]

mary cherry's response: "april tuna is the blackhole of beauty."

adam to brooke: "is mary cherry retarded?"

it makes me laugh now just reading them. i could go on and on. this show was way ahead of its time. its too bad it wasn't able to go a third season. i love finding a show that can watch over and over again and still continue to laugh. and even see things you didn't notice before. sigh…r.i.p. popular and especially you mary cherry.

be well…

a holiday in gyeong ju

deery-lou.

last friday when i arrived at taekwondo there were only two other students there. no sign of the class before or the instructors. the two kids were playing soccer in the dojang so i sat back and watched. the music teacher who shares a space with the taekwondo school came in and motioned for me to follow her. she brought us into her class where a bunch of little girls were sitting around a table eating watermelon. she offered me some but i declined. she kept speaking to me in korean but i had no clue as to what she was saying. all i could understand was kwanjangnim. eventually she made a phone call to the kwanjangnim and then the two students lead me outside. apparently the class was training outside by the stage for saturday's performance. so there i stood in my taekwondo uniform watching them in the middle of an apartment complex. i definitely got alot of stares to say the least. at one point in the evening i was surrounded by a bunch of children asking me all sorts of questions. "you like pizza?", "how old are you?", "what's your name?", "how are you?", etc. there was one boy who kept running around pointing to everyone saying "he's crazy". apparently the word "crazy" is the one english word that all children know. i suggested that we play hide and seek but none of them listened. they'd much rather stand around me asking their questions. it kind of felt like being a circus freak. i think this lasted about 10 minutes or so. it felt like forever. finally one of the kids from my class told me that the sabomnim wanting to talk to me. he told me that there wasn't going to be any class tonight afterall because of the practice. he told me to come by tomorrow to watch but i told him i'd be in busan. on my way home i checked the time. it was 9:40. the time when my class usually ends. they had me stand around the whole class time. one would have thought they'd have told me there was no class once i got there. oh, well thats korean logic [kl] for you.

we left our apartment around 6:30am on saturday. we needed to young by 8:20 to catch the train to busan. the 5 hour trip was pretty uneventful. there were no ajummas to feed us. we did cause a bit of a problem by being in the wrong seats. koreans don't really like change. in busan we took a bus to the beach. we were going to meet some friends of young's there. the beach was pretty nice. nothing spectacular. it reminded me of daytona beach sans the wire fences that go into the water. not really sure why there are there. again mark it up to kl. we walked along the beach for awhile until young's friends showed up. her friends took us to yongkung temple. a temple that's nestled among the rocks near the sea. so far its been the most amazing temple i've seen yet. i really liked it because it was centered around the zodiac. they had all the animals represtented as you walked down the path. the day was quite windy to say the least. it was so nice to breathe in the fresh sea air. it kind of felt like walking around the beaches in sf. i saw about a million different buddhas: big ones, small ones, stone ones, stuffed ones ect. everywhere you looked there were tiny shrines with little buddhas. after leaving the temple we went off to get some food. everyone wanted sashimi. not really i big fish eater i was hoping there might be something else like shellfish that i could eat. NOPE! it became ethan's fear factor dinner. we had all these various side dishes to start off with and let me just say i DID try everything. here are some of the things we had:

1. boiled shrimp with the heads still on
2. peas still in there shell
3. bean sprouts
4. seaweed
5. some kind of pink thing that looked like cut up tongue and was moving
6. live octopus
7. sea squirt
8. snail
9. sea cucumber that looked slimey but was crunchy like grisselle
10. sea scallops
11. jellied acorn
12. shredded cabbage
13. eel

after the sidedishes were done they brought out a giant and i mean giant plate of raaw fish. anyone who knows me can imagine how i felt. i must say though that i did eat my fair share. to be honest it was all quite good not to fishy either. although there was this one kind of fish that was a little crunchy. i only had one piece of that. when we finished the giant plate of fish was finished the waitress brought out fish head soup. there's nothing like have a bowl of soup with a fish head in it. the soup was very spicy and a bit fishy for me. i only had a little. overall the meal was quite excellent and i think i'm actually starting to enjoy raw fish. i mean afterall i did eat sea cucumber, a pink tongue, and a sea squirt [whatever that is]. we also had this plum liquor that was very good. at 10:30 we caught the bus to gyeong ju which was standing room only. let's just say i got very close to the old lady behind us. at the toll booth there were too many people in the bus so we had to drop some off make a u-turn and go back through and pick them up. crazy. thankfully horace was kind enough to share his i-pod with me. otherwise i think i would have gone crazy. we arrived in gyeong ju around mid-night caught a cab and went to sa rang chae, the korean guest house we were staying at. when we arrived there was a little fire going in the center courtyard. we got some tea and chilled out. the room horace and i stayed in was quite tiny. it bascially had a table and bunk beds. we had to use the communal bathroom and shower. there was definitely alot of sandals on and off this weekend.

sleeping in on sunday was definitley out of the question. the paper doors and window of our room was not sound proof. we spent most of the day in the downtown vicinity checking out the sights. gyeong ju is the place that has a lot of ancient ruins. all dated back to the silla dynasty. its definitely cool to see. here are some of the things i saw on sunday:

1. daereungwon tomb park
2. hwangnam-daechong [twin tombs]
3. king michu's tomb
4. cheonmachong, where you can see inside the tomb
5. drawing of a flying horse [shows high status]
6. many artifacts
7. anapji pond
8. seokbinggo ice storage
9. cheomseongdae observatory [its the oldest observatory]
10. some people shooting bows and arrows
11. a horse drawn wagon
12. a tandem bike
13. blow-up bunnies
14. bulguksa temple
15. cheongungyo and baekungyo bridge
16. haetalgyo bridge
17. seokgatap pagoda
18. dabotap pagoda
19. daewoonjeon hall
20. geukrakjeon hall
21. someone playing a flute
22. sarira stupa
23. seokguram grotto
24. many, many buddhas
25. three-storied stone pagoda
26. tons of people

we had to rush through the seokguram grotto because by the time we got to the top it was 5:45 pm and the shuttle bus left at 6:20. there was a line to see the buddha that was encased in glass. and once you go through its over in seconds. its definitely worth seeing and i'm glad we did. its was amazing to see it built into the side of the mountain. from there we basically had to run down the mountain. which wouldn't have been too bad had i worn sneakers. i don't even have to tell you guys what i was wearing. i'm sure you all know. when we reached the shuttle bus it was completely full. some people were still trying to squeeze one. three girls got out and somehow six more people fit on. i'll let you all do the math on that. so we made it. YEAH!!! i actually stood in the doorway of the bus. thats how packed it was. the shuttle bus ended up taking us downtown where we walked back to the guesthouse. which is like a maze because there are all these alley ways. kind of like chinatown in sf. young asked some kid which way and he pointed us in the right direction. that night we got some beers and hung out in the courtyard with some other guests. we meant this french couple who we spend most of the night talking too. it was quite relaxing especially after the busy day of sightseeing.

monday we spent the day hiking mt. nangsam. and yes i had my big shoes on which was quite interesting especially since there were lots of steep rock steps to climb. all the koreans i passed along the way were laughing. honestly i can't really blame them. i would have laughed too seeing some white dude try to climb in platforms. during our hike we saw more tombs and lots of different buddhas. we climbed to the where the temple was which was amazing. i seem to be using that word alot but oh well. the view of the valley from their was breathe taking. very peaceful and serene. along our journey some korean girls wanted their picture taken with horace and i. i felt like such a celebrity. after our climb we grabbed some lunch which was so good. we had noodles, tofu and kimchi, and a seafood pancake. one of the best meals i've had. the tofu and kimchi was excellent. we then caught a bus back to the downtown area and headed back to sa rang chae. on our way home we stopped and got some traditional gyeong ju bread which was like a thin preztel shell filled with beans. very tastey. we spent the next couple of hours hanging out in the courtyard talking to the french couple, sander [an austrailia boy of 3], his mom, and the owner. sander was so cute. he wanted to make a salad with the leaves he found. around 5:30 we said our goodbyes and headed off for the bus station. our bus left gyeong ju around 6:30 and arrived in seoul a little before 11. the trip on the bus was pretty uneventful. we did stop once where i got a corndog. so good. it had pieces of potato in the breading. yummy. then it was time to jump on the subway and head home. it was a pretty great weekend. i feel like i only saw a portion of gyeong ju and busan. i'd definitely go back. and if i go back to gyeong ju would stay at sa rang chae again. it was definitely a relaxing place to be. that pretty much says it all. i'm sure i missed a few things. its hard trying to remember everything one did and also hope not to bore others with the details. anyway i look forward to visiting there again and seeing what new things i can find. until then…

be well…

busan/gyeongju photos

deery-lou.

well i'm back from my three day weekend. got back late monday night. i went to busan and gyeongju. did a whole lot of sightseeing and if i don't see another buddha or temple for a few months that'll be fine with me. i'll write more about my trip tomorrow. in the meantime here are some photos for you to enjoy and ponder over.

be well…

snaps from busan/gyeongju…
Links

• busan/gyeongju trip

childhood reflection

deery-lou.

it's hump day. YEAH!! two more days then i have a three day weekend. this weekend horace, young, and i are off to busan to visit the beach and yet another ancient village. hopefully it'll be a little different than the folk village. i think after this weekend i'll be a little over villages of all sorts. enough of villages let's go back to hump day. whenever i hear the word hump it reminds me of my childhood. i spent my formative years growing up in the burbs of orlando, florida. as anyone knows growing up in the burbs can be quite mundane. there really isn't much to do and after awhile swimming pools lose their interest. so basically we made our own fun. and in the course of events we were taught a few things too. there was this girl who lived in our neighborhood who i'll call ginger. ginger was about 4 years older than us and very promiscuous. oneday my friends and i were out playing in the street. i think it was freeze tag or tv tag or something like that. anyway ginger came out and called us over to her house. of course anytime someone older wants to hang out with us younger kids we jumped at the change. so ginger said she had a new game she wanted to play with us. we all got excited. she told us the game was called humpy monster. humpy monster? what was that? of course at the time i was 8 or 9 and had no idea what hump meant. she went on to explain the rules. someone was the humpy monster, which was her, and the object of the game was to chase the other people. once you were caught you got on all fours and then the humpy monster mounted you and started humping away. like i said we actually had no idea of what was going on. we were nearly pawns for ginger's active limbido. so there were running around her front yard in the burbs being humped by ginger non-stop. looking back none of the other kids were every it. it was always ginger doing the humping. i can only imagine what people thought as they drove by witnessing this act. and here we thought we were playing an innocent game. a few years later i realized what the game was all about. its funny how we remember those things. i don't think i'll every forget ginger and her humpy monster game.

its been a couple of weeks since the magic straight and can i just say…over it. my hair feels and looks so dry. even when i apply product it doesn't feel soft and silky anymore. plus i'm really not digging the mullet action. i think i need to go back and get it cut a lot shorter before i decide to shave it all off. just call me straw head. i've been listening to bagelradio alot lately. thanks ted for bringing music to my life. every time colored shadows "moscow" comes on i think its the theme to the hardy boys/nancy drew mysteries show that was on in the 70s. its the very beginning that has kind of beep beep sound to it. anyway whenever i hear it i get all excited only to be disappointed. one would think that i'd become wise to this after the first time but its happened five times now. am i that obsessed with the hardy boys and nancy drew. obivously the answer is yes. after all i do own the hardy boys guide to life. which is a definite must have just in case you ever get kidnapped. i never leave home without.

i got more e-mail haiku this week. not really sure why i find it so amusing but i do. here's what i got this week:

olive lorelei
anything prison side use
is shining here not suddenly pretty
bad she

asia elisa
a disappoint
my suddenly we wife
raise fly sugar

as for my day to day to life its been pretty much the same. almost had a fight in one of my classes. paris and vicky were making fun of daniel and once the girls got into class and were seated he stood up and had this glassed over look to him. i thought he was going to rip paris's throat out. luckily one of the korean teachers came into my room to give them something and i asked her to find out what was up. then the three kids started screaming at each other in korean and daniel was crying. the three of them were taken out and had to be lectured by jk. oh, the excitement of it all. thats basically it. taekwondo is going good. i have poomse 1 + 2 down. now i need to work on 3,4, and 5 before learning 6. i am making friends in there though. all the little fat boys love me. go figure. maybe we go play video games and eat doughnuts together.

be well…