Last essays

Here are pictures of essays or tests that I enjoyed. Maybe you will too

Kids Essays Version I have no idea and am lazy so I'm not looking it up

Along the lines of the last post, here are the last (most likely unless I find another page somewhere) kid essays from Korea. I always kept a couple of them in reserve for when I didn't have a post. Again, I obviously didn't follow my own rules for the last few months or I would have posted them earlier. Anyway, here you go:

My best friend is Ju-won. He is very small. So he do well Limbo.

My class teacher talked “a friend in need is a friend indeed” to me.

When people go on a date they prefer romantic and high salary place like restaurant.

I traveled many places and then I go to many species of restaurant. I think 40% of I’ve ever been restaurants are sell meat. I think our family can’t live without meat.

Every Friday my family goes to the restaurant. I don’t know why it is Friday but I just try to think it is “Thanks giving Friday” (TGIF)

I’ll tear down the old building like build a bear.

Sometimes my younger brother makes me angry. He is a mischievous boy. I don’t like his mischief. 

My sister really makes me mad because she provokes a quarrel to me.

I make me angry because I quarrel to my sister and she counterattack with her strong fists.

At the end, it jumped to the groundhog

I wonder how lions play with their friends. I think lions may play tag.

If you are a teacher you have to be a smile as monkey (working on similes)

Answers on a test about chicken pox:    He is chicken bark            He is head on the plot

He legbark (he broke his leg)

We can send phone massages

I take care of the me.

I like to eat pizza and sphiggate

Many women like shopping because they like to buy expensive bags, boots and clothes.

We can do many things in a mall but it is still hell to me because it doesn’t have widows.

So I’m lining in here (I’m standing in line)

My father is my mother’s wife. My grandfather is dead.

I’m sitting at my desk when 3 students come in to ask me a question, one gets close and sniffs me, then they start speaking rapid fire Korean. She sniffs me again and I ask her, “Sojin, did you just smell me?” She replies, “You smell like Canada.” “I smell like Canada?” “Yes, you smell like my house in Canada.” “Is that a good thing?” “Yes” Then she smelled me again. Apparently Canada smells like a combination of Head & Shoulders and Britney Spears perfume.

You know I had a cold for forever. Once I got meds and my voice came back as I greeted the students in one class, I got this response, “Hey, your cat voice is back”.

I can clean like a mother.

Gen. Jang was a very strong man for ladies

In the game if the number of attacks per 3 people out of the rain will shift (explaining baseball)

Talking about friends:
He looks like an old man because his face is ugly
He looks like a pig because he eats every food but he is cool and kind
He is dandy
She is like a bear because she likes sleeping

First of all, It is more cute dog better than cat.

Describing Woods:
He looks like an angry bird who has huge eyes.
He is like a giraffe.
He has black like a hedgehog hair.

She is successful baller (ballet dancer)

I like doing tricks with knives because it’s stylish and cool

(talking about camping) I can’t wait to sleep with my friends

Therefore, man can make love too deep with own family. In addition, man is victim for family

Snow White and the 7 pygmies

What’s that? It’s a whore (hole)

 

Musings

I'm cleaning up my desktop and came across this so I decided to go ahead a post it because I was supposed to at some point. Pretty sure I was going to add more things, but never did. Also, hopefully I will update more often, but you've seen how that's gone for the last 4 months so...

These are things I think about and would post on Twitter if I had Twitter. Some are Korea related, some are just general thoughts.

It’s difficult for me to respect people who liked “Moulin Rouge”

I get excited whenever I see a fat Korean because I think, if necessary, I can buy pants.

I would shave my legs more often if it lasted longer than 7 hours.

My kids often tell me to hold out my hand and then they put snacks in it. If they are the candy/chocolate variety, I usually eat them. If they are the cracker variety, I’m a little more wary as they sell fish crackers. The other day, I got the jerky variety. That one got palmed and went into my pocket.

And deleted!

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.