THE END HAS COME!

I just spent 10 wonderful days in China with my mother since we were on holidays. China was really great. Had a fantastic time.

today is my last day at school. Is kinda weird. I keep thinking about how im gonna say goodbye for some reason. You know.... that last moment when you say goodbye to someone is always kinda awkward. Dunno. Anyways... im just chilling for the day and then gonna head out.

Overall, it was a good year. learned lots. had both good and bad experiences. good and bad days. met lots of awesome people. had my good moments and my bad ones. all in all, i am pretty happy with this year's outcome. But as everything, there had to be an end to it.

I hope you have enjoyed my blog over the past year. THIS IS MY LAST BLOG :-(
Take Care!

p.s. Im considering starting a personal blog for my keeping a sort of online diary of day to day stuff that happens. Should I decide to do so, you will most likely get an email or facebook message to let you know. bye bye

Fashion trend and end

When going through the comic strips it took me a couple seconds to get this comic. Then I thought... OMG! i never thought about this before. But SO true!. So, young korean women dress super well and are super trendy. They wear their mini skirts, high heels, their purses match their outfit and makeup... i mean, they ARE SUPER TRENDY.

ON THE OTHER HAND....you have the old women, or ajummas, who are super not fashionable, they wear those long shirts that cover them from the sun and those ugly hats and then pants that are like capri pants but that usually look too big on them and those big black shoes that look ugly but seem to be very comfortable for walking. In other words, they dress like a grandma. NOT at all a fashion statement.

so the question now is... "When does the change happen?" When do korean people/women go from being all fashionable and trendy to dressing like a grandma. I mean.... im sure it doesnt happen from one day to the next. Good question. Sadly, I dont have an answer for you

Buying in bulk

Yeah, many times in Korea people put stuff in bulk and there is no way you can just get one of something. i think its cuz like in the US, people like to save money and so technically if you buy in bulk you are saving money. For example, even though i know I will eventually need toilet paper I hate that every time I have to buy toilet paper i have to buy at least 16 rolls! they dont sell them in smaller packages. I mean.... serioulsly?!?!?!? I mean, I know my sister and i CAN use tons of toilet paper at a time, but even WE cant go through that much toilet paper that quickly. Anyways...

What I was thinking about today

you know.... ever since we moved to the states i always thought. damn,.. americans are such wasteful people (and they are).! i mean, they throw away pretty much new clothes, then you find practically new furniture in the dumpsters... it is a society of wasting wasting wasting.... with the idea that instead of fixing something or using something again and again and again you should just buy something new, and that some things you can just use a couple of times and then you can dispose of them. Well, honestly I had not seen anything like that until I came to korea.

During my stay here I have realized that koreans are just as wasteful people. Maybe not so much with things such as clothing but other stuff... definitely. I mean, it is not strange at all to see perfectly fine sofas, chairs, tables, house items etc out in the dumpster just cuz people dont want them anymore. I just dont understand how someone can waste stuff like that.

It was shocking, two of my friends from korea, jennyfer and nick practically furnished half of their apartment with stuff they found on the streets. And its nice stuff! I mean.... you would have never guessed that someone had just thrown in away and they had picked it up. Anywho... so yeah, just so you people know out there, the USA is not the only country that throws away shit for nothing

Why?

Why is it always that you get to meet all kinds of awesome people when you are about to leave a place. Now that I have only a couple weeks left in korea these past 2 weeks i have met all kinds of people. Like the time at the suwon immigration office and last night. Last night I went salsa dancing as always to the same club as always where i am usually the only foreigner. Only this time I was not the only one. There were a couple people from Colunmbia, there were 2 french guys and also there was a girl from Romania, who by the way spoke perfect spanish (i though she was also columbian) at any rate... we had an awesome time and talked for quite a while. Then they told me about this one club in Suwon where all the latinos go hang out and all.... and i am like.... why did I NOT hear about like a year ago>!>!>>! that would have been nice. So anyways... instead of going to the Jimjilbang to sleep as i usually do after salsa dancing I actually stayed with the romanian girl and one of the columbian guys until 5am chatting in the bar. Was tons of fun. Had a great time.. the only downside: by the time i got home i was dead tired. Today (sunday) i really wanted to go to this one cultural even in suwon that was gonnab e from 10am-5pm but instead i decided to sleep! hehe.... since I am getting old i put top priority on my sleep. Otherwise i simply cannot function well. So anyways.. i was a bit upset that now that i am leaving i am starting to meet all these cool people. :-( guess im just outta luck.

What I would call a pretty good day

Today i was supposed to go to the suwon immigration office to get a re-entry permit into korea and an extension on my visa since the people kinda messed it up the first time around..oh, AND i was supposed to go cancel my internet as this is the last month that I will need it and I have been paying month my month.

THE PLAN: the plan for today was: after my first period class, which ends at 9:45am....go to cancel my internet account , grab a cab and go to the immigration office and get that stuff all done, come back to school at around 2pm, finish correcting some scripts of my students for school just in time for our 3:30pm speech contest training.

WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED:
Internet: So i had tried to cancel via phone but was told that i had to go in person to cancel my account. So I left school and first of all, got a bit lost, but finally when I got there (note: it was raining) I was able to get that done. So my internet will officially get disconnected September 18th (the day my mom and i leave for china) and the guy will come get the modem on sept 28th (when we get back) i already paid the last bill, so thats taken care of! one more thing off the list! Time of departure 10:50am. Next mission...

Immigration office: I got directions off the internet on how to get there and it seemed pretty simple. But the directions were actually not clear on what busstop i had to get off at and so I get a much longer way, got lost and then ended up having to take a taxi. So wasted a good 20minutes trying to find the place (oh, they just recently got a new building) So finally i got there. From the older office I remembered from when I got here I thought it would be a quick process and that I would be in and out of there in little time. But when I got there.... i got my number #160 and realized they were on about #89 and it was moving pretty slowly. So what i thought would be maybe a one hour wait and then getting stuff done actually turned into a 4 hour wait! yes.... 4 HOURS!
now...
the good points.... while waiting I met some awesome people.. two students from Spain, 2 from france who were studying economics, 1 from Austria, 2 from Mexico and 1 girl from the US. All except the girl were there to get their alien resident cards because they came to Ajou University to continue their studies. I was seriously surprised how many students there were. I think at least 30 went by... (they were processing their work in group and they got in and out quick! ).
the bad points... I got out of there exactly at 3:00pm, so i had just enough time to get back to school for the training, but I didnt get the corrections done, which I needed for the training, so i felt really bad. AND i didnt even eat lunch!

so there you have it. my day.

now, i just got home and am about to go the coffee shop to get some corrections done and email them to my students (cancelled my private for tonight). Once i get that done, i wanna work on my italy project and then on the logos and some company stuff... phewww.....

bye bye

Majorly distressed

I am majorly distressed. Yesterday I brought my ipod to school because I needed it for something I was working on and later that day it just kinda disappeared. I recall perfectly well taking it out of my purse that morning and just not finding it later after lunch. I really wanna think that I just maybe misplaced it somewhere and thus cannot find it. But I am starting to think that it is possible that someone might have taken it. So far, I have not had anything bad happen to me in Korea, let alone in school. But im seriously starting to wonder if maybe one of the students at school took it. I am hoping they didnt but I cant help but to think that. I already looked in my english room and twice at home and I keep checking my desk over and over again, but nothing. And its not the ipod that uposets me so much, but rather its contents. There are so many things on that ipod that I just cannot afford to lose.... let just hope it turns out somewhere