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.