Ponds

I am struggling right now. I still don't have a job and don't know what I want to do, which makes it that much harder to look for jobs. Should I go back to school? If so, in what? How do I pay for it? Do I get more loans? I'm overwhelmed with it all and don't know how to process it so I do what I do and pretend nothing is wrong.

I've tried to figure out when/where I've been the happiest and most productive. Those times were my last 2 years at UGA, law school and living in Korea. Then I tried to figure out what those had in common. Friends were a huge part of that. Also new experiences, even if the new experience was studying like I had never done before.

I looked deeper and think I've figured out part of it. I work well in ponds. By that, I mean a group - usually smallish, but potentially changing with a core close set of people. At UGA, I was in an organization and thrived in it. I knew my role - I knew my responsibilities to the group, to myself and how to make it (and myself) better. In law school it was similar. I was involved in lots of organizations, knew everyone in the school and knew my role. I knew which classes I had to really prepare for and which ones I could coast in. I learned how to study the best way for me (thanks Eddie!) and to balance studying and organizations and family/friends/fun.

In Korea it was more of the same. Once I figured out how to do my job, I did it well and developed a decent relationship with my students, co-workers and boss. I knew what I was doing. Socially, I found groups of people and fit into them. I wasn't a full organizer, I was a smoother - I blended groups and motivated other people to find their good points.

I've discovered it's not really the size of the pond, it's that it's defined. Not having a pond, I'm floundering. I don't know my role, I don't know how to make myself or the people around me better. I don't know what I'm doing. And it's hard. Really, really hard. I'm not trying to get sympathy - everyone has something going on and I'm so blessed to have family and friends and God to offer my support. But I'm scared. That's the first time I've said it out loud (if writing counts as out loud).

I need to find a pond so I can breathe again.

Nails

I thought I wrote a post here about the first time Dallas did my nails, but I can't find it so it might have just been on Facebook. Anyway, we went to a hair shop to get Dallas's hair cut and mine trimmed. Somehow they thought only Dallas wanted a haircut, so after he was done, they started on another person. Then they figured it out and felt bad, but it didn't bother me that much to wait some. Lots of hair and glasses shops have nail polish sitting out for their customers. Dallas was getting bored and his phone was about to die, so he grabbed my hands and started painting my nails. This led into a tradition of sorts, where he started to do my nails on a regular basis.

The next time was a week or so later when we went to Seoul. That's tagged here if you really want to see them that much. The next time we went all neon and he added a stripe, trying to get creative.

I looks like I'm trying to feel him up. Pretty sure I wasn't, but it was a long time ago, so maybe I was.

The nail painting started just before the summer session and because he didn't have many classes, he was able to change it up every 3-5 days. Lots of my students commented on them and got used to seeing new patterns and would get mad when I didn't change them enough. Lots of my girl students were doing their nails too because they aren't allowed to wear polish during the school year (especially middle school and high school girls) so they go crazy during the break.

My student's nails. She went all jeweled - I still haven't done that - too much work.

He only let me post this picture because his arms look good.

I loved this part of hanging out with Dallas. It was a strange bonding thing - I mean the fact that he would hold my feet shows how comfortable he is with me because I've got some jacked up feet. I've had more than one pedicurist yell at me. It's also relaxing/meditative. Plus it was fun and my nails didn't break as much.

Sparkles! This was a pain to remove. Tip - sparkle polish never looks like it does in the jar (pot?).

Lots of pinks

Towards the end, we started to get more creative and try for harder designs. My friend Cindy recommended paint pens and gave me a good store to look for some.  She got super into doing her nails when she worked in Jinju because she had the entire Friday afternoon off in her own office and would do her nails (and usually toes too) at school. She kept it up when she moved to Daegu, but not quite as often.

Clouds on my toes. I kept these for a long time, until I got a pedicure here.

I got a special dot tool so he could try more stuff instead of using toothpicks.

The night before I left Korea, Dallas did my nails for the last time. He wanted to do red, white and blue since I was going back to the US. I let him do whatever he wanted. I got quite a few compliments on those ones.

I really like the red and white

 I waited a long time to take the polish off of these because it was one more end to my Korean life. I finally did though and went purple, which my mother hated. I used a tip from one of my old students about using tape and made the tips pink. Then I went blue again. My mother said they were hideous. Then, she got into it and helped me do candy corn ones! She said, "Not as good as Dallas, but I'm working on it" after she finished the first layer and got paint on my finger. She got the hang of it though, so I'll be using her again :)

Lots of tape was involved.

I've gotten lots of complements and comments on these ones. One lady asked me for detailed instructions on how to do it and when I told her about the tape, she was like, "You're a genius". I mean I can't argue with her can I?

I doubt I will do another post dedicated to my nails, but I'll try to periodically post pictures and I will add them to my facebook for those that follow me on there. I've never really had fingernails to paint before because I bit them all off. Hopefully the stress in my life will stay away and I won't go back to that old habit.

Last week in ROK and flight back home

Yes. I know this is over a month late and that I haven't posted in about 3 weeks. I've been sort of busy. I'm looking for a job, which sucks. I also think I didn't want to write this because, well, it makes it real. Final. I'm not going back. And while I knew that when I got on the plane, there was still a little part of me (and there still is I guess) that wants to be in Jinju - with the familiar, with my group of friends. Especially now - October is the perfect month in Korea. The weather is fabulous and there a a billion festivals. And I'm missing them. So that's why I didn't want to write this. But I'm going to because it's time.

So in my last post I mentioned how I had to be out of my apartment by the 22nd, but that my plane ticket wasn't until the 30th. That meant moving in with Dallas. It actually went much better than it could have. Our apartments are pretty tiny and with 2 people's stuff crammed in it, space is extra limited. But after we arranged everything and organized his house, we didn't have any problems. We'd spent so much time together the previous couple of weeks that it really didn't feel that much different - except that I was showering at his place instead of mine and that we did laundry together. The week with him was pretty low key - he went to work in the morning, then came home and we went to the gym or watched an episode of Secret Garden, then we had or made dinner, watched more SG and went to sleep.

That routine was slightly altered because of a few other events. First, Monday night was my night to say and extra goodbye to some IEC people. Brandon and Jamie were nice enough to host a going away/game night. So we ordered delivery chicken and played some 30 seconds and Balderdash. It was a lot of fun and a perfect way to say goodbye because I'd been playing game with the Currents, Ilani, Jungwha and Lance since the beginning.

I think Brandon is trying to talk us into voting for one of his answers here.

Jamie cracking up - she laughed a lot while reading some answers.

Lance and Ashley looking dumbfounded while Ilani and I laugh at whatever it was.

I don't remember what I did on Tuesday (this is why I need to write stuff earlier - my outline didn't list anything). The only thing I do know was that I had to wait at the apartment for a guy to come pick up my luggage and when he came I wasn't wearing pants because it was really hot and I was about to take a nap, so I had to rush and banged my foot. I'm pretty sure I went to D's school after that to bring him something, but I don't remember what. I think Dallas and I tried to get dak galbi that night, but it was closed and then the Vietnamese place was also closed so we ended up at the kimbap place. It was raining and we went to Cafe Bene and got take out coffees and a waffle using my free stamp card and went back to the apartment and watched more SG.

On Wednesday I had a packed day. I went to dance in the morning and said good bye to all the ladies. My teacher finally took a picture with me! They got my contact info, but we haven't messaged as of yet. I really will/do miss dance class. It was also my last time with Krista and we said a fast goodbye before she got on the bus because neither of us wanted a crying day.

You can't get the full effect of how awesome she is from this picture. And I look gross, so ignore me.

After that, I ran home to shower, then got picked up by Lucy and we went for coffee and honey bread at LeeDongWoo coffee near the river. We drove back and parked near work, but then split up before the intersection so that she wouldn't get in trouble for being seen with me - we didn't know if my ex-boss would be mad at her or not. She was a good worker and I'll miss her too. Right after coffee with Lucy, I met Lori for coffee with at Holly's. We sat and talked for a long time about all the junk going on in both our lives. Both of us said we should have been meeting up before, but we were both glad to at least have been able to chat then. Wow that was an awkward sentence. Dallas had volleyball that day, so we had a short gym session.

After the gym, he rode his bike to a lesson he had, and I went back to his house to shower and change. That night was my going away dinner. I made reservations at Zio Rico's and they set up a back room for us. Maybe about 10 people came, which was a good number and included all of my favorite non-IEC Jinjuites. Dallas got there a bit late because of his lesson, but when he came he brought a cake. It was shaped like an apple because he wanted to encourage me to keep teaching. It also tasted like apple with sour apple on the top. He and I split a salad and pizza and everybody else ordered random stuff. Lots of us at the back table ordered wine, so that was fun. It was a nice night. People left slowly because many of them had to work in the mornings. Then a group of us went outside and chatted and slowly said good-byes. Hugs were involved and I tried super hard for tears not to be.

Me and cake

Cheers for me

There was debate about staying out later and contiuing to drink, but I didn't want a sloppy goodbye with anyone, so we decided to call it a night. We walked Kylie and Alex home, then Nick dropped out, then it was me and Dallas. We fell asleep soon after we got home. On Thursday I met Kyeong He for our last trip to the sauna. We scrubbed, went in the outside pool, which was really hot, scrubbed some more, I went into the cold pool and we scrubbed some more! Then we had lunch and said goodbye.

Last lunch with KH - kimchi bokimbap

We were on the corner and both started to tear up so she ran off because she didn't want to cry. She sent me a text later saying she cried for 2 minutes, which was a long time for her! Then I met woods to cancel my phone. That whole situation was annoying but I won't go into detail because it's not worth it. I ended up having to go back to school and sit with him so he could transfer my last payment amount and give me a pay stub of sorts. I had planned on meeting Dallas earlier, but was stuck waiting, then ended up seeing him on the street to walk home anyway. That was our last gym day and I took a picture of my locker because the gym owner was always so nice to me (and actually gave me a free locker). After the gym we went back to the dak galbi place, which was open this time, and ate dinner. I love that place, so it was my choice for last meal in Korea. Then we stopped off at the park and went on the swings for a few minutes. Lastly, we walked home and finished Secret Garden. We were up sort of late, but not too bad. The series was really good and a good ending for us.

I woke up early on Friday and took a shower and got dressed. Dallas went with me to the bus station and waited for a few minutes with me because my bus was actually about ready to leave when I got there. We hugged, and I got on the bus. He surprised me a bit because he walked over to the corner and waved bye while the bus pulled out, which I wasn't expecting. Again, I was an idiot and forgot to take a last picture with him. I don't even think I need to explain how much I will miss him.

The bus ride was pretty easy and when I got to Seoul, I asked a couple of people at bus stops if I was at the correct place for the airport limo bus. I had to cross the street, then got nervous because I was waiting for so long (it's supposed to come every 20-30 minutes and I waited for almost 30). I saw one of the buses across the street, so I ran back, but the driver told me to go back to the other side again. So I ran again because I had the green light. I'm glad I did because the bus pulled up right after I crossed again! It was another easy ride though and dropped us off right at the entrance of the airport. I asked information where to find my luggage that I had picked up and it was all there and ready to go for me. I threw it on my cart and went to wait in line to get boarding passes and check in. After standing in line for about 15 minutes, a man came over to check tickets, then told me I had to wait for almost an hour before I was allowed to check in for that flight. Luckily the airport has free wifi, so I ended up calling Dallas and talking to him over kakao talk for a little bit. When I went back to check in, the man told me to get in the customer service line because there was a problem with my flight. Basically, the airport in China was backed up due to weather problems, so they were actually going to move me to and earlier flight so that I would still be able to make all of my connections. The lady at China Southern help desk was very nice, and she changed the wrong spelling of my name for all my tickets. They also didn't charge me for an extra bag, even though I had two checked bags. At that point I had to hustle because the plane was at the other gate and I would have to take a shuttle train. I made it in time, and actually had time to get a Jamba Juice and sandwich before the flight - which was the first food I'd eaten all day.

Last picture in Korea :(

The flight to China was ok. They didn't have personal TVs, only the one up front, which wouldn't have been a problem except for the fact that they showed an American movie, with Chinese subtitles, dubbed in Korean. So I couldn't really understand all of it, although I got the idea. The other weird thing that happened was that they brought water, an extra snack and dinner to certain people first. I was one of the people so I was happy about it, but I'm still not sure why it happened. I think we must have been people whose flights got changed, but really all that did was make my trip and wait at airports shorter. The layover in China sucked. For being an international airport, they had squatter toilets. I also didn't know which type of money I could use - I had won and dollars and didn't feel like trying to exchange anything - so I sat there for 3 hours with no water (luckily I still had a sandwich left from Jamba Juice). The airport had free wifi, but you had to have a Chinese phone number to get it, so I ended up playing a phone game for 2 hours (thank you Mensa Academy!) and charging my Nook.

The long plane from China to LA was pretty decent. I had a crap seat sort of (middle of the middle) but that didn't really bother me. The man on my left fell asleep pretty quickly, and aside from the occasional snore, didn't bother me at all. He actually let me put my feet over on his side a bit because my backpack was big. I will say that Asiana was a nicer airline because they bring water and little snacks around during the whole flight. China Southern didn't do that and I was really dehydrated. But overall it wasn't bad. They fed us twice, but I can't remember what I ate. It was decent plane food though. When I got to LA, I got a water (first culture shock - it was basically triple in price from Korea) and a Butterfinger (yum!!). Then I talked to Dallas for a little while then boarded my last plane.

The flight to LA was fine, but they didn't feed us except for a bag of pretzels. Atlanta's airport is really nice in terms of arrangement, cleanliness and stores. It sucks because you have to pay for wifi. As such, I couldn't contact my mom. I got my luggage super fast and waited. And waited. When she wasn't there, I ended up using a pay phone and having to call her 3 times. She had attempted to check with Delta, then Orbitz on my flight status so that she wouldn't have to wait at the airport if I was delayed. Both companies had screw-ups and told her that either my flight didn't exist (Orbitz) or that my flight didn't get in until 8am (Delta). We figured out the problem later, but that meant I had to wait in the airport for another hour while she came to get me, after I had already been there for an hour. Luckily I knew that 1- she was ok and 2- she was on her way. So I sat on some benches and read my Nook. Then we did a super American thing and went to Waffle House, where I ate an omelet and hashbrowns, then went to Costco.

So that's my travel home story and last week in Korea story. Sort of lame I know. I will try to continue to update with things that are going on with me and I'll probably still add some posts that I never got around to doing - like some random Korean tidbits and kid essays and stuff like that. I think this time was harder because it was such a shock and because I knew I wasn't coming back. But it was also easier for that same reason - I was closing a chapter and trying to look at it as a new beginning. I'm still trying to look at it that way, but it's hard. Thanks for taking the journey with me so far :) Who knows what will be next.

Second to last week

After coming back from Busan on Sunday, reality started to sink in that I was going home in less than 2 weeks. That Monday-Wednesday was supposed to be our vacation, so I wouldn't have been working anyway. I started applying for jobs and cleaning out my apartment. I went through all my clothes and donated a bunch of them, then packed up all winter stuff in one suitcase. I think I mentioned that I had to be out of my apartment by the 22nd, but that my plane ticket wasn't until the 30th, so I would basically be homeless for a week. Dallas was nice enough to let me move in with him for that last week, so we gradually brought stuff over.

The week was kind of a blur. On Monday morning I met with a guy who was leaving Jinju so that I could possibly take over his old job temporarily.  We met at 9 or 10 am at e-mart and sat in the food court and he gave me the job details. I contacted the manager and it looked like a decent possibiity, but didn't work out because they wanted someone to sign a year long contract and the most I was willing to do was 2 months. After that, I met my friends Jess and Nick over at GNU for coffee. We sat and I told them all about the job issues (Jess was actually the one who gave me the lead on the temp job) and we thought of some other ideas for me to stay awhile longer. Then we went to lunch at Cafe Nini, which is a good salad and panini place that I hadn't been to - glad I tried it! After lunch, I went home and worked on a job applications again - it's incredible how long those things take to fill out. I also got some DVDs for Dallas's class and dropped them off at his school.

On Tuesday, I met up with Kyeong He and we had lunch at Blacksmith - a semi-fancy Italian-ish restaurant. We split a salad and a cranberry pizza. It was much better than I anticipated! I told her all about the situation and she started to come up with some ideas to help me out too - like putting my name in the ads section of a paper to get some temp jobs or private students. Unfortunately that didn't work out either, but it was so sweet that she tried. We also made plans to meet the following Thursday (my last day in Jinju) to do a final sauna day.

Cranberry and walnut pizza. It actually tasted good with the lemon squeezed on it too.

Salad in an artsy bowl. They brought us 2 plates so we could share it.

That night, I met up with Ilani and Brett to talk at Starbucks. Our friends Michelle and Ashely joined up later and we all talked about jobs and life and families etc. It was a good conversation and Brett was super sweet and bought us all smoothies. At the end, I walked back to my apartment with Michelle and gave her laundry detergent that I had left over and wouldn't use in the week I had left.

On Wednesday morning I went back to dance class for the first time in a month. It was fun and a lot of the people welcomed me back, which was also kind of sweet. After class, I ran home to shower then I met Brandon and Jamie to pick up Ilani's guitar that she was selling later that day and to talk to them about my situation and to pray about it. Brandon made me laugh because he said that the reason it happened was because my first year in Korea was too easy and that now I had a real Korean experience. Then he drove me home because he had to go to the copy store which was across the street from my apartment. When I got home, my boss was there checking my gas and electric levels so he could figure out the final bills. Then we talked for awhile about everything and decided to meet up the following week to cancel my phone and get my final salary check. He also told me that I had all day on Thursday to get out of the apartment, which was good because it gave me other day to finalize everything and another night to let Dallas sleep alone.

On Thursday, I met my old co-worker Lucy for Vietnamese and to explain everything to her. I think I mentioned it before, but she didn't really know what happened because she wasn't there during the summer session because she fell and broke her butt bone. She had to sit on a cushion and bring it with her into the restaurant. It was a very interesting lunch because we chatted about all kinds of things and I found out some more info about my ex-boss. I'll miss Lucy a bunch; she was a good co-worker.

After lunch with Lucy, I went to Dallas's school. This week was his camp week so he had 2 sections of kids - 5th & 6th graders in the morning and 3rd and 4th graders in the afternoon. He had a fairy tale theme for the camp and the kids read and did different activities related to different stories like Peter Pan and Cinderella.
Earlier in the week I went to camp a couple of times, mainly to drop off stuff with him or bring him things he forgot. On Tuesday I think, they were making their own characters and I caught them tracing each other on giant pieces of paper. This day I went for the majority of the day (well the afternoon lesson). They read The 3 Billy Goats Gruff and had to answer questions about it to get water balloons. Then they had to run around and pop them. Later we had a water balloon toss and at the end Dallas just popped the left over balloons on their heads. Then we went back inside and the last 30 minutes of class we watched a movie. I think we watched Peter Pan that day, but it could have been Sleeping Beauty or a couple of others.

They were in groups to create characters. This is a bunch of them including Africa man, Santa girl and cat lady.

Dallas tracing one of the 4th graders.

After class ended, he went back to my apartment with me and we cleaned out everything else and brought the rest of my stuff to his house. I think we made it in one trip, but it might have taken 2. It was a little bittersweet to say goodbye to my home for the last 10 months. I think that's the night Dallas and I started watching "Secret Garden" - a Korean drama from a few years ago. He had seen it before, but really wanted me to watch it before I left. I think there were 20 episodes in all and we watched a couple a day.

On Friday I went to dance class again, then I don't remember what I did for lunch - I think I just went back to Dallas's and watched an episode of Secret Garden. Then I used a lighter and burned the edges of some treasure maps that his kids had drawn the day before to make them look fancy. I ended up burning/melting part of my thumb nail. It didn't hurt, but it looked weird. I went back to school to take the maps and to watch Mulan with the kids. At the end of class the top 3 people got prizes and then everyone got a certificate for doing the camp. It was pretty cute. Then I helped clean up the room and we went back to the apartment to watch one more episode of Secret Garden and go to the gym. That night we went out to Urban Drink and met up with Kylie. Her friends Ginna and Ammar were there too and we stayed and talked for awhile. Kylie and I always end up in weird discussions that we don't think are weird. That's part of the reason I love her - the fact that we can basically say anything and instead of looking at each other like there is something wrong with one of us, we consider what the person is saying and roll with it. Then we split a cab home and went to sleep.

On Saturday, we got up and had brunch with Eve, Mandi, Chelsea, and Emma. Usually we have brunch at Stammtisch on Sunday morning, but we went there on Saturday to see them. Mandi was having job issues too, so we all commiserated. We stayed for a fairly long time, eating and chatting. Dallas got everyone's points on his membership card, so I think that made him happy. Eve decided to try and catch a bus back to Seoul then, but I was glad that I was able to see her once more before I left. It started to rain when we left but Dallas and I decided to walk home anyway. We stopped to get coffee and return some movies. Then we went home to clean his apartment because my stuff was everywhere and he was starting to get claustrophobic. Most of the stuff was things like shampoo and flour and pots and pans that he was going to keep, but it just needed to be organized into his house. Then we watched a few episodes of Secret Garden and I think we went to the gym. I don't remember if we did anything that night, but I don't think we did.

Sunday was my last day of church. We got up and Dallas made blueberry pancakes. Then I got ready and went to church while he was getting ready. On the way, he stopped and got coffees and met me after the singing was over. We listened to the sermon and at the end, Brandon announced that it was my last day and called me up front. Then other members of the church came up with me and laid their hands on me or held my hand and prayed with/for me. There was lots of crying (mainly by me) but it felt so loving to have people who cared for me like that and who want the best for me and are honestly praying for me. That's the part of IEC I will miss the most - that family feel. Dallas wouldn't go up because he didn't want to cry, so he took pictures.

Jackson, the little boy, told his mom right at the beginning that there were too many girls.

Then we had a small group discussion where some people opened up about what was going on in their lives. After that a group of us went out for solangtang and stayed there for awhile. I chose it because both I and Ilani like it and she was leaving the following week, so I figured it was like 2 birds with 1 stone. After lunch, a smaller group went to get coffee and Dallas met up with us there. Stuff like this is what I'll miss at home too - being able to just hop in a cab and meet up and Starbucks and walk home. Yes, there are coffee shops here, but the feel is so different. As we were leaving, Ilani and I told Dallas and Lance that they needed to be friends. Ilani and Lance have a similar relationship to Dallas and I and since both the girls were leaving, we decided the boys should hang out with each other. Not sure it will happen, but at least we said it.

Then Dallas and I had our last Sunday night walk. We started these in February I think and he's doing them solo now. It was one of my favorite parts of the week and I miss it. That's one of the places where I feel like I got to know him the best. It was kind of strange, because he ran for awhile and then somehow, even though we were on the same trail, we lost each other and had to call each other. I meant to take a picture, but I forgot. I meant to take lots of pictures that week and forgot - or had a mental block because that made it more real or something. On our way home, he got hungry so we went back to the solongtang place (he hadn't gone earlier) and I sat with him while he ate. We went to emart after that to get some milk and eggs I think - I know whatever we were getting was small. While we were there, we ran into my dance teacher and her family. It was really funny because Dallas finally got to see her. I talked to the daughter for a bit then told her I was leaving on Friday and she was shocked because I was supposed to be there until October. But I told her she could still talk to me on facebook or kakao talk. On the walk home we talked about my dance teacher and at one corner I did some weird dance move (I think it was an X step from an aerobics song) and some old guy saw me do it and laughed and said something to Dallas about me. It was pretty funny. I think we watched only one episode of Secret Garden when we got home because he had to get up early the next morning because regular classes started back up.

So, just like I will say in the next post (about my final week), my second to last week in Jinju was bittersweet. I was able to see a lot of people and felt huge amounts of empathy and love, which was awesome, but at the same time made it that much harder to leave.

My last trip to Busan - Lotte Giants game

So after the whole debacle on Friday afternoon, I met up with Dallas and went to the gym. When we got home, I cleaned up and he helped me organize. Then I got some things together because our friend Eve was coming into town and we decided to have a sleep over and drink wine and vent. We also had planned to go to Busan on Saturday and I wanted to stick with that plan, so I packed for the weekend too.

Eve got to Jinju pretty late, but it gave me enough time to be totally ready when she arrived. Then we all walked to Dallas's apartment carrying tons of stuff. All of us were gross and had a parade of showers, then drank wine out of old Nutella jars while Dallas did my nails. Eve fell asleep pretty quickly and we were getting up early the next day, so we tried to go to sleep early too.

Game day nails - Lotte Giants in their colors of black, white and orange.

The next morning we woke up and got ready to go to Busan. I don't think we got breakfast stuff, but we split an apple on the cab ride to the bus station. I think we both fell asleep on the bus, at least for a little while. We got into town quite quickly, then looked at the subway map to figure out how to get to the stadium. The next thing we did was hit up a coffee shop. We got iced coffees (I know - strange for me but it was actually a chai latte, so it was ok) and breakfast and used wifi to book a motel - although the area indicator was way off - more about that later.

After breakfast, we took the subway to the stadium area to buy tickets. Apparently they didn't go on sale for another 2ish hours, so we attempted to buy them online, but ran into a bunch of hassles and then decided to just wait it out. Dallas wanted a hat, so we looked in the gift shop and saw a couple of cute ones, but figured we'd find a cheaper/better one later. Then we went to some sporting goods stores around the area looking for eye black - the patches you put under your eyes if you're playing outfield - because he wanted those too. Dork. We went to about 4 shops looking for the best ones because they all had some sort of branding on them. Then we went to another coffee shop where we got juices and played sporcle trivia games to kill an hour or so.

After waiting, we went back to the stadium and waited in line for tickets. We were pretty close to the front of the line, but had to wait for maybe 30 minutes before the windows were going to open. While we were waiting, Dallas went and got us water and ice cream and the couple in front of us cracked open some beers, then the tab broke off their can of nuts and the man walked around trying to find something to bang it open. He finally succeeded! The weirdest part about the ticket line was that people can apparently leave something (for example a newspaper or a beer can), walk away, then come back later and claim the spot. This happened in almost every line and I didn't know what to do. One girl behind me got pissed at one guy who clearly cut, but he was older so she couldn't really say anything. But we got decent tickets without too much of a hassle.

Gate to enter the stadium

After we got the tickets, we still had a couple of hours before the game so we walked back to the subway and went to the big Lotte department store. We split some chicken thing and each had a kebab in the food court, then went up a billion escalators to the sports section. He found a hat he liked a lot and even though it was more expensive than the ones we saw earlier, it was really nice and good quality. After lunch and hat purchases, we decided to cab it to our motel since we didn't really know where it was. It was a good thing we did because it was in the middle of nowhere and we never would have found it walking. It was called the Inca (I think) and the lady was really nice and the motel itself was decent, it just wasn't close to a subway stop at all. The bathroom was really nice and big though. We dropped off our stuff, then cabbed back to the stadium to meet Eve. She had other plans earlier in the day in Jinju, but took an afternoon bus to come meet us for the game and to hang out after.

The cab dropped us off right in front of the stadium, which was closer than the subway station we had originally tried to go to, and we walked down to the corner to get Eve. I've talked about Korean baseball before, a long time ago, but to recap if you don't want to read the old post: Korean baseball is sort of like American AAA ball. There are cheerleaders and a group leader who directs things like dancing and cheering and chanting - lots of chanting. The batting team gets to cheer and (especially if you're the home team) the fielding team can randomly chant at certain things - like at the pitcher.

Decked out for the game

Cheerleaders (in their second of three outfits) and the group leader guy in the center.

The best part about the chants, in my opinion, is that quite a few of them are American/British songs that they just changed the words to. For example, some of Lotte's chants are come on feel the noise, I love rock and roll, and their theme song of sorts, which is Glory, Glory if I'm correct. Part of the reason we decided to stick with the plan to go to the game was that a Lotte game was on my Korean bucket list. Giants' fans are really active and get into the game more than fans from other teams and I wanted to see if that was true.

Slightly blurry, but I wanted you to see the big finger that Dallas got instead of thunder sticks.

Somehow these weird duck things are the mascots instead of something that resembles a giant. I just...Korea.

Another fun thing about Korean ball games is that you can bring anything you want into the stadium. Before we handed over our tickets, the three of us stopped at a CU and got soju, mixers, cups of ice and I think Eve got a beer. We brought all of that into the game and nobody batted an eye. In fact, they have beer and soju vendors right outside of the stadium, like peanut vendors in the States. Another cultural difference is what you eat. Instead of hotdogs and popcorn, people eat fried chicken and dried squid. We decided to roll with it (in fact, Dallas was super excited about it) and around the 4th inning or so, we bought and shared a box of fried chicken. We did not do the squid. The last fun fact about Lotte is that in the 7th inning, they pass out orange plastic bags. Originally (at least this is what I read somewhere) it was to help with trash pick up, but fans started putting them on their heads. This was one of the things I was waiting for and got probably unnecessarily excited about.

Bag heads!!!

The field at night

We waited until the bottom of the 8th inning before deciding to call it quits and try to beat some of the crowds. We left the stadium and hopped in a cab, who had no idea where to go and ended up calling the motel from the card I had. We got back to our room, took showers and got dressed to go out. While we were getting dressed, Dallas turned on the TV and found Nickelodeon, which was showing iCarly, and he found it hilarious. So I gave him the breakdown of the show, but I don't think he's watched it since. I don't know why, but for some reason we didn't take any pictures that night, which is so not like any of the 3 of us.

We decided to start out and Thursday Party, and once we got there, just ended up staying. We sat next to a group of 3 guys who were probably college aged students. They looked like they kept wanting to start a conversation with us, but were too shy about it or something. One of the guys got pretty tipsy - I think it must have been his birthday. At that point it was our turn to play darts, which was one of the reasons we decided to go to Thursday Party - I like having something to do at bars and they are one of the few that have darts or other games. I kicked butt, which made Dallas sign us up to play again because he doesn't like to lose.

Then, another group of 3 guys sat next to us. These guys looked like maybe they had been to another bar earlier and were much more talkative. We discussed giving fake names if asked, but we ended up telling these guys our real ones. One of them was super into Eve and wouldn't leave her alone. He was also really loud and apparently a bit of a spitter. The other 2 were pretty nice and spoke really decent English. We ended up playing group darts - 2 Koreans and Eve versus me, Dallas and the other Korean. The losing team was supposed to buy and do a shot. This was the weirdest part of the night.

I've talked before about how in Korea there is no such thing as being gay, but that there are 1-tons of gay guys and 2-straight guys touch each other in ways gay guys don't in public in the States. It's very odd. In some ways I like the fact that men can hold hands or hug or whatever and it not be looked down on. In other ways, it's just weird. And I'm not saying that from a gay/straight perspective, but it's just strange to see anyone repeatedly grab someone else's butt. Which is basically what happened. As a way to distract the guys on one team, the guys on the other team would pretty much molest them - butt grabs, running their hands up their legs, touching pecs etc. They didn't touch me or Eve (well Dallas did) but they felt it was ok to touch Dallas and each other. Again, I am not sure why I didn't take pictures of this.

Our team won (woot - 2 wins for me! electronic darts is so much better than real ones :) )and instead of just buying shots for the losers, they bought shots for everyone. I requested anything but tequila. So what did we get? Tequila. Luckily they did bring salt and lemons, but still - yuck. We all took the shot then we were done with drinking. We sat at the bar and talked for a little while longer, which is when we saw another group of guys at the table behind us come in with ice cream cones. It was kind of awesome. Then we went home and watched the very end of Harry Potter and went to sleep.

The next morning, Eve woke up really early. Our room had darkened windows, so it was pretty dark in the room, but she didn't want to wake us up so she sat on the floor and looked at her phone for awhile. I think she was playing Candy Crush. We finally got up, got showered and dressed and headed out to find something to eat for breakfast. We couldn't find a good breakfast spot and ended up going back to the Indian place we had gone to a few months earlier. We split a curry and a pizza and everyone had a lassi. Then we went shopping at Zara and H&M. Well they went shopping and I helped. After H&M, Eve decided to head out since she had to take a train back to Seoul. Dallas and I got coffees and then walked around for a little while, then we decided to go home too. We made it on the bus, then fell asleep again. It makes me kind of sad that I didn't think to take a picture as this was our last bus ride together. Oh well. I don't remember what we did when we got back - I'm sure we had dinner somewhere and/or went to emart or walking or some combination of the above, but I honestly don't know. This is why I need to write posts sooner!

Even though it was kind of sad because it was my last trip, it was a good weekend and it took my mind off of everything that was going on. It was also one more thing that I got to cross of the bucket list - I left with only 2 things left, so I can't feel too bad about that. I'm glad I got to spend some time with Eve and do a final shopping trip with Dallas (well in Korea, I know we will go again once he gets home).

Return to Song Jeong and Cindy's last trip to Jinju

On Thursday the 15th Korea has a national holiday. Not sure which one, but I think it's basically the equivalent of Labor day. That Wednesday evening, Cindy and her boyfriend Torin bused in from Daegu. Cindy was going back to the US on the 26th, so this was her last trip to Jinju and the last time I would see her.


We made plans to have dinner at a horse meat restaurant near GNU because our friend Cody was coming with us and he said it's really good. Plus I wanted to try something new. She ended up getting to Jinju earlier than expected and I got on a long bus over to GNU, then got lost, so I didn't get to the place until after they had almost finished eating the horse. Luckily they saved a piece for me so I got to try it - it tasted very similar to beef, so I'd try it again. They had also ordered duck, so I shared some of that with them and we took a farewell shot of soju.

After eating, we decided to do some pre-bar drinking. Lots of Koreans go to convenience stores, buy beer or soju, then sit at plastic picnic tables in front of the store and drink. We decided to emulate Koreans. They have these non-alcoholic drinks in a bag like blue lemonade, peach tea and blueberry. These bags come with a plastic cup of ice. naturally, we buy those, a bottle of soju and tada - drinks! Cody, Cindy, Torin and I sat out front of the CU talking and drinking for maybe an hour. Torin loves sunflower seeds and had just bought a huge bag of them. The funny part was that he kept them in what looked like a makeup pouch and carried it around with him. We had a whole discussion on the proper way to eat them and the best flavors etc. Then Dallas came a joined us and then Kylie and some of her friends ran into us and joined the group too. We stayed for maybe another hour, then moved to Urban Drink.

Sitting in the lovely lighting outside of a CU

At Urban, we chatted for a little while, then decided to play some games. I think we played Never Have I Ever first and I can't remember if it was Dallas or Cody who lost. Then we played a game where you say an actor/actress/character/famous person's name and the next person has to say another person whose first name starts with the first letter of the previous person's last night. For example, person one says "Angelina Jolie" then person two can say "Jason Bateman". We played a version where we started with this specific baseball player's name (but I can't remember it - I know it started with an "h") and if you went around and ended with him, you got to give someone a shot. I won but I split the shot with Dallas because I sort of made him lose. At that point everyone was tired, so we decided to go home. Dallas and I were going to the beach the next day and invited Cindy and Torin, but they decided to stay in Jinju and just relax. So I said goodbye to both of them. It was sad seeing Cindy off, but we'll stay in touch I hope.

Us at Urban

Torin could never get a good picture for some reason.

The next morning Dallas and I met up just after 10 to get a bus to Namhae. We were both pretty tired, but I don't think either of us had hangovers. Dallas ate a salad and we split a bagel and waters on the bus. The driver was pretty speedy and both of us got headaches. We made the transfer to the next bus without too much of a hassle except that I had to pee and there was no toilet paper in the bathrooms and I forgot to put some in my backpack. I decided to hold it. We often take a picture or 2 on the bus ride to places, but for some reason we took like 2 dozen this day.

Making some sort of weird gangster sign?

I had to scratch my head and he took the picture and really liked it.

Once we got to the beach we did our typical routine of umbrella, mat and tubes. Then Dallas went to change and I started putting on sunscreen - after the obligatory toes in the sand picture. We stayed in the water for a long time, but there weren't as many waves a last time, so it wasn't quite as fun. It was also more crowded in the water itself this time. 

Flower toes and blue water

Contemplative

We got out of the water around 1ish and ate pb&js for lunch, then walked for a bit. Then we resunscreened and went back in the water. This time a bunch of redish-brown algae was there in full force and while everyone tried to avoid it, you often got stuck in the middle of it. It didn't feel too weird, but it had a strong fishy smell to it. We swam around and chilled for a little while, then Dallas went back up to the umbrella and left his tube and brought back his phone with a waterproof pouch. We had been meaning to do this for a long time and finally bought another pouch because we kept forgetting the one we had already. He came back and we did "Ariel" shots - the ones where you put your head in the water and flip your hair back to make a water arc. We took quite a few and while none of them are going to be how-to's, they weren't awful. We do need to work on making nice faces instead of looking like we're drowning though.

Ignore the weird bathsuit/sports bra combo - the only one I had doesn't fit. The hair looks good though. Which is amazing considering I don't have hair.

Half a heart. If his face looked better, this could have been really good.

D might get mad at me for posting this one - I think it looks like a Cool Water cologne ad.

Then Dallas had me jump on tubes and laughed at me the whole time. There are multiple shots of this too, but I am still not self-confident enough to put some of those online. So you get this one.

Jump...and fall.

Relaxing in the water.

After the Ariel shots and tube jumping, we decided to call it a day, even though it was early afternoon. Dallas had a bit of a headache and was hungry and just wanted to be out of the sun. We showered at the public restroom again, but this time there were hardly any people. I did have a whole wall of showers to myself, but then 2 sisters - probably middle school age - came in and took the shower directly next to me, because of course. I got dressed and met Dallas downstairs. One problem was that I forgot a belt and my shorts kept falling off of me. It was not fun.


We stopped off at a store and got some drinks and checked where to get the bus. The man told us right across the street, so we sat for a few minutes, then he came back and told us it was up the hill (like last time). So we walked up the hill but decided to stand at a different spot this time. We misjudged where to be exactly and ended up running for the bus when it stopped a little earlier than where we were. The driver waited for us and was nice though.

While we were waiting for the bus and when we first got on, we played 20 questions but it had to be a Disney character. I won both rounds because I guessed his (Raja) and he didn't guess mine (Sleepy). We also played the actor game from the night before and Dallas won that one. When we got back to Jinju, we went to my apartment and I changed pants to ones that sort of fit. We left our bags and went to dinner - I think we had solangtang but I can't remember. Then we got take-out coffees and walked around downtown for a little while. Then we went into the arcade under/next to Lotte cinema. We played some shooter games - I got higher scores but died more often, air hockey and then Super Smash Brothers - which I am awful at. Then we sort of played pool but had to stop because it was closing. It was fun and it sucks that we just figured out that it was there - at least the basement level part. As always it was a fun day with Dallas. It sucked that I had to go to school the next day...and the next day of school sucked harder, but at least we had one more good beach day before the summer ended.

What's happening?

Hi everyone.
Did you think I forgot you? I didn't. Things here (and by here I mean in my life) have been rather hectic in the last 3 weeks. So. I will blog most of the events from the last 3 weeks, but this one sort of explains the lack of posting and puts the other ones in context.

I think I mentioned in an earlier post that the last 2 weeks of July and first 2 weeks of August were "intensive course" for my school. Well on the last day (Friday) of the semester, my boss called me into the back room to talk after my class at around 3. The following week we had vacation Monday - Wednesday, so I assumed he was going to tell me about the schedule for Thursday's classes. I was mistaken.

Without going into all the details - mainly because I told him that I wouldn't smear his name etc. and because I'm over explaining it - he told me that he was changing the format of the school and that they didn't need a foreign teacher anymore and so today was my last day. He had bought me a plane ticket for the 30th, I had to be out of my apartment by the 22nd and we would meet later next week to talk about bills etc.

I was in shock at that point, went home, met with a friend, cried a little, called the Labor Board and went back to school where I had a 2ish hour long "conversation" with my boss about getting some form of compensation and other details. It didn't start off well, but it ended alright and we've been able to remain civil and professional. Although I still can't say I'm happy about the way everything happened.

After the first day, I basically let go of the anger but was just sad. I was not ready to leave Korea - I still have things on my bucket list and I had plans already in place through early November. I was also not ready to leave the people. I knew some would go before me (like Ilani who left last weekend and Cindy who left a few days before I did) but I should have had more time with most of them - my IEC family, Krista & Kyeong He, lots of other people and Dallas.

So I've been home for 3 days now. Trying to adjust back into life in the US (which isn't that hard to do) and looking for a job (which is that hard to do). I've joined a gym and finished reading a book. I've done a handful of applications and watched Jeopardy. I still haven't had a diet coke.

Like I said, I will update with posts from my last few Korean adventures. I will probably randomly update this with things going on here too, but I'm not totally sure about that at this point. We'll see. So for now, if any of you know of a job opening, or want to hire me or give me a car or a diet coke, please email me or post a comment :)

Sun Cheon - Eco Geo Garden Expo

Two Saturdays ago my friend Jess and I decided to take an adventure. We went to SunCheon for a project called Eco Geo that I had seen on a water bottle. It was a garden expo and we really didn't know much about it except that we wanted to try it out and that it would have flowers.

I met her over by GNU and we took a cab to the train station nearby because we didn't know exactly where it was. She told the cab driver the name of the station then went "chuga chuga" like the American sound for a train. The cab driver laughed and pantomimed that that is the sound for brushing your teeth. The sound for a train is "chick chick bok" or something like that. When we got to the station, the ticket guy was really nice and told us to have fun and exactly where to go in the station. The train was fun because we usually travel by bus here. The AC on the train was nice and we chatted for the hour and a half ride. When we got off the train they had a trick art display at the bottom of the escalator. A man was there and we asked him to take a picture of us. Then Jess asked if he wanted her to take a picture of him. He then pulled me over into the picture with him. It was very strange.

Riding the train! The one there was pretty empty but the one home was filled with middle school boys who must have been on some sort of field trip.

Jess catching a fake train in India?

Us and Marilyn.

After the pictures, we found an information desk and the woman there was also really helpful and nice. She told us where to go to get the bus to the expo. We found the bus and asked the driver who was really funny and then when we was explaining things in Korean, he said there were foreigners on the bus and asked someone to explain things to us. A nice lady across the aisle told us which stop to get off on and where to buy tickets. So far our day was awesome!

It was sort of hard to miss this bus.

When we got there, the tickets were a bit higher than we had expected and both of us said we were glad that other friends didn't come with us. It was also really really hot. We started off in a garden area that was in a huge greenhouse type thing. They had like backyard gardens from different countries set up. It was cool except they all had these little paths and benches, but you couldn't walk in or sit on any of them, so it was weird.

In front of the gate

Flowers have feelings and feel pain you know.

Me and a waterfall

The most sexual coconut (according to the sign). The nuts look like ladies' butts and the stems look like male parts.

Hawaiian garden? I like the chandelier made from wine bottles.

After that we walked toward the water and got sprayed with a mister fan. We also got some waters and carried those around with us because we had both already started sweating. We sat down and made a plan to go to a hedge maze, walk around the different country gardens and go to the wetlands area. I wanted to see the wetlands because I had seen a picture online and they looked really pretty. We started up to the maze and on the way stopped off to take a picture with our heads in police officer bodies. The man who took our picture tried to be all professional about it and we were just like - click it! Then he caught up to us again and asked if we were German. We said no, but then decided that if anyone asked again that we'd be German for the day. No one else asked.

I am a Korean police man

Hills with twisty walking paths and the central pond

We found a rose garden and the maze was next to it. The maze was slightly disappointing in that we made it to the center and out again in less than 10 minutes. It wasn't that complicated.

Giant wire cats in the rose garden because why not?

This is what the maze looked like

This rabbit was in the center of the maze. He wanted to hold hands, so I obliged.

After the maze we decided to cross the bridge over the center pond instead of going around. We also took jumping pictures (a typical Korean pose) while on the bridge. Jess loves to take jumpers, but says her face always looks crazy.

My ups aren't so good - this is about as high off the ground as I go.

Jess got some more air

We were both super sweaty at that point and stopped to get some more waters and Jess got a slushie. We sat under an umbrella for maybe 10 minutes then continued to the Dutch garden - complete with windmill and fake wooden shoes!

Wooden shoes! I was so distracted by these that I didn't even think to take a picture where it looks like I am turning the windmill.

After that, we walked through some tree lined path that had lots of photo spots. While we were on the path, a lady stopped us and told us to fill out postcards and that they'd be mailed anywhere. So we each wrote one to our parents. Who knows if they will get there, but mom, I did send one!

I am an angel :)

Sending my post card with the lady who helped us

Heart within a heart

Sideways heart - Jess kept yelling change and then would take another picture. Some were cute. Others...not so much.

Blowing on some pinwheels made from grass.

Walking on train tracks. When I passed the bar, the guy in the hut yelled at me. It scared me because I didn't see the guy in the hut!

 After the posing, we found what was marked on the map as the wetlands. It was not what I was expecting. It was basically a marsh. We did see some cool rock speakers though. Then we walked back and decided we were about ready to go. We started walking to the opposite exit when I saw some really cute swings. Anyone who knows me, knows I love a swing. Plus these were shaded and in a little secluded area, so we decided to sit down and swing for a bit. This was fun and breezy, but when I stood up, my butt was covered in sweat. I told Jess that it probably looked like I had wet myself. She said, 'It can't be that bad" then I turned around and she went "oh...well maybe people will think that's just what your shorts look like." I appreciated her attempt to make it better. They dried fairly quickly though.

This makes me look like I have a tiny head. Perspective is dumb.

Then we crossed what was called the "Bridge of Dreams". It had all these tiles that kids had drawn. I think they were supposed to draw what their dream job was, because there were lots of teachers and doctors. But then other kids just drew random stuff like animals and Harry Potter. They also had TV stationed at random areas that showed you and then someone at other TV location.  It was kind of neat because we kept getting to the TVs at the same time as another group of people so we kept seeing each other.

There were 2 sides to the bridge and each had 2 walls like this. So there were thousands of these tiles.

Jess and I are in the left TV. Our TV stalkers are in the other one. We never actually saw them, but we looked!

When we decided it was time to go get food and rest because we were both exhausted from the heat, I finally saw the wetlands I saw in the picture - it was the Korean experience and was on the opposite side of where we came in. I was too tired and hot to go over there, but it was pretty from where we were.

We then hopped in a cab, thanked him for the AC, and went back to the bus terminal. We looked all around for some food, but they didn't have much. We settled for a coffee shop and got a really good sandwich and coffees. Then we caught our bus with a few minutes to spare and looked at our pictures and chatted until we made it home. Both of us were almost punch drunk from being so tired/hot. We said goodbye and I caught another bus home. The rest of the day/weekend is in the previous post.