every new beginning comes from some other beginnigs end
Mood:  bright
ok, for my 3 loyal readers, mom rose and auntie elaine, i'll continue writing. but mostly because of roses inspirational comment, voosh? or voom? ahh yes that really pushed me to keep writing! haha

ok so really, what have i missed... um

11-11 was pepero day (>?>??I AI) because someone explained to me, the 11-11 looks like pepero sticks. of course, what better reason to celebrate, than when the date resembles a famous candy? it is only a holiday in korea, but it is a huge holiday. a lot like valentines day in the US really. me and rose took a stroll to cna the day before and were totally overwhelmed with the amount of pepero and gift baskets and oh all sorts of things.

also on pepero day donggang middleschool went on a picnic. we stopped at several different places, the names of which escape me, but the first place was a water purifier center. what a strange place to chose for a picnic... but it was at the base of a small mountain. we took the short hike, and i got a lot of pictures.unfortnatly i can't load them on my computer... but i got some from roses photo album. so go see them. at the top was a small temple like building and a stone statue of a tree with faces. we also went on a boat ride that was of no significant importance to me, then stayed a while, at the top of the mountain, freezing, where it was still a little rainy, and windy. i don't remember what the other places were but we didn't stay long at any of the other places. the bus, (the hippy bus: so hippishy colored with the red blue yellow orange so on ceiling lights and tyedye colored curtains) had a tv and for entertainment we got to watch some movies. we saw people on a strike over the nuclear weapons in gunsan. i guess people in seocheon feel there is too much tension with those weapons being so close. a lot of people have mentioned riots and fighting in seoul? i havent heard. but it doesnt affect me anyways.

the leaves are all gone, and it is getting colder and windier. ji-eun got me a big gift basket for pepero day, and besides the generous amounts of pepero, it also had these cute mittens!! much needed since the school ignores the fact that there is no heat and it is like a refridgerator inthe classroom for most of the time.

the weekend was nice and dany came over after school on saturday. my mom allowed her to stay the night which is not like her but i think she is greateful for dany teaching ji-eun spanish now that her spanish lessons with marcilla are over. we couldnt find anything to do on saturday...took a chilly walk around seochoen but couldnt find anyone. made idiots of ourselves at the sandwich shop, but i won't go there. >_< ji-eun dany and me all had a girls night, the rents were in seoul or some place like that n we had the apartment to our selves.

sunday was some sort of buddhist holiday, but my dad was vague in giving me any details. we went to my host-mom's parents farm house about 10-15 minutes drive from seochoen. after eating breakfast there we stayed until 1 and then went to gunsan for ji-euns last spanish lesson. dany was thrilled to talk with another spanish speaker and most the time me and ji-eun were totally left out of the conversation. dany and marcilla spoke spanish, then ji-eun and marcilla would talk in korean...and i'm just over there twiddling my thumbs and drooling, as i so often do ya know. :-P it was a 2 hour class. afterwards we went to a park place in the mountains next to a beautiful lake. it was cold so we stayed only a few minutes then went to this amazing coffee shop on the other side of the lake. it had such an amazing view and was a log cabin type of building, like my house! it was filled with plants and i think i want to get the seeds of some so i can bring them home for grammy. since they are indoor plants im sure i can grow them in maine to! watch me!!! ok did i mention the coffee was delicious! it wasnt the fake coffee like teh maximum stuff here. no it was sooooooooo good! i wanna go back every weekend!

after dropping dany off i barely had time to take a shower before ji-eun informed me we were going back into gunsan for some shopping with her aunt and mom. her aunt is so nice!! i've meet her a few times before, and she loves me! she has 2 kids, and they are learning english , even though they're really young. they had english names as well as korean names. the girl (who was teh cutest!) was wendy. like from peter pan? and the boy was willie, like free willie? right? how cute is that! anyways, in gunsan i got the most kick bum bunny slippers. ji-eun got some too, but they are different colors. so warm too, (as i said before, much needed in the ice block that is our classroom.)

at a trditional village near the school they are repatching a thatch roof, a rarity now adays, so we were invited to investigate such a process. it was really interesting how they do it. we had the oppertunity to do some, but i had to say no, surely if i had any part in making a roof it wouldnt last to see springtime. julian tried and so did rose. horray for the blondes!rose is a natural of course. i'm sure she will go far in the thatch roof industry. hehe.

tuesday and today i missed school with a cold that's kicking my butt, but they gave me all kinds of strange medicins and had this machine like the shock treatment at mental hospitals that was to kill the virus or what ever, but i'm feeling better, so i can't complain about their methods too much, and i'll go back to the ice lair tomorrow i guess. those wooden walls don't have much if any insulation, although what good would insulation be, with the double doors always open on either end of the hall, and the windows too. haha they are crazy

i dont think i ever mentioned tests?? everyone passed so we will all advance to highschool!! horray! i did fail the ethics test, but i doubt she will ever get around to giving me a retake, and ti doesnt matter anyways since i did alright on all my other tests. highschool here i come!! the tests were really easy, i felt dissapointed i even stayed up studying for them! during th tests there were only half days, so relaxing for me, not at all for the other students. im really greatful now that there isn't tha tsort of pressure on middle school students here about getting into highschool. but maybe in a way it is ok because the koreans in middleschool are so much more mature than middleschool students in the us, i think because of the increased amount of responsibility.

now it's late and jiuen needs teh computer.

-lori-