oh my god! my skin is white!!
Mood:  party time!
On Friday my host mom taught me how to make kim bap. it's really fun and easy, so if I bring kim and some of the ingrediants home with me, I cn make it there. I got pictures of my kimbap making efforts, and they came out really good, so i'm pretty proud of myself right now!

Friday at school the technicology teacher told me he was going to Philidelphia next summer, and he wants to come visit me. Cool, that will be fun. He doesn't know much english, so I dno how he's gonna do it, but maybe he has family there.

Saturday we didn't have school because it was Christmas, and on Friday my host mom bought me a calling card, so I wanted to call my mommy on christmas eve, but the phones werent connecting, and many things but I still got to talk to her on aol. The lack of Christmas-ish things was a little downer, but that's how it is in Korea. Especially with my Buddhist family. I stayed up really late talking to friends, then on Saturday we had to leave for Busan at 8 in the morning. That didn't leave me any time to open my gifts, so I stashed them under my desk until Sunday night. the trip to Busan was really long, it's on the southern tip of korea, on the southern ocean. we stopped at a rest stop and they let me call my mom. The phone card finally worked, so I talked to her and gram, which was their xmas eve, when my family usually celebrates Grammys' birthday. Steve went to visit her, and brought her a beautiful poinsetta, that was really thoughtful of him. called Jack, but he was less than enthused to talk to me. Shouldn't have woken him up, I won't do that again.

In Busan we went to the Lotte Department store, with everything sooo over priced, and it felt like people were ALWAYS staring at us. actually, they were. the employees well flock to you and start harassing you the second you touch an item, jabbering on, asking how they can help you, proding you, trying to find the right size, finding out how you plan to pay so on. we turn a corner, and there is like 12 sets of squinty eyes all pointed in our direction. People are always always staring, and not always in kind ways. Some are like, what are you doing in MY korea...and it's a little akward sometimes.

After Lotte we went to Heundai beach. It was really pretty. Not like a big Mexican beach, and Dany and Emilio were dissapointed, but the water, even though it was night, was blue blue! and there were all the couples walking on the beach, all romantic like awwwwwwww! We couldn't stay long but we got some nice pictures, and drank coffee. It was cold and windy. KG actually seemed surprised there were not people swimming. I guess there are people here that enjoy swimming in December, like the PolarBear club or something. From there we went directly to our hotel. Hyundai, like the car, Hotel. It was sooo huge!! and nice too, deffinatly 5 stars in my book, except it didn't have beds. Ummm 5 stars, and no bed? I remember a dream I had about not so great hotel's. This one wasnt' as bad as the dreams, but I was shocked there weren't beds. The flooring is a special kind, so it's really comfortable, I didn't mind. We didn't go to bed until about 4 anyways. It was Christmas morning in the US, so I called my mom, it was 9 in the morning, and talked to her and gram.

"hallo?"
me- "Laurie??"
"yah!"
me-"hii!! this is the other lori!!"

She is liking Christmas in the US with the tree and presents and everything, I'm so glad! I got to wish Grammy a happy birthday on her actual birthday, and me and my friends all sang her happy birthday in different languages. I'm so glad I got to talk to her, I was really angry when I thought the phone card I bought wouldn't work, so I couldnt call home for the holidays.

There was a dance place at the Hotel, but not many people were there. It was alright though, except for the outrageous drink prices. we didn't stay long, and just hung out in the lobby. I called Cayla at like 2 in the morning, she appreciated the long distance call. :)

sue-"cayla get off the phone!"
cayla-"what? with lori!? who i haven't talked to in 4 months??? I don't think so!"
sue-"really? our lori?? merry christmas lori!!!"
yah feel the love :D

I called Heather but she wasn't home. I got to talk to Michele though, which was nice too! Then I called Heather last night at 11:30>>>9:30 am her time. Matt answered her phone, i'm like who is this!?! where's my Heather?! ugh, matt, jez.

We talked for like an hour, that was good on the calling card. Rose said her mom called the phone people, and asked how much it costs to call the us with out a phone card. they said 50 won a minute.....WHAT? thats like .05 a minute. so she talked for 3 hours and it cost her 7,000 won.. thats crazy. I'll ahve my host mom call, and see if we are on a similar plan. but then I would be calling all the time, and that would be bad. Maybe I won't ask. um,

On Sunday we woke up and ate breakfast at the hotel. it was teh best ever!! It was jsut like a western style breakfast, or european breakfast, but anyways it wasn't Korean! we didn't eat fish and rice with chopsticks, like most mornings. it was so good! When we left we went sight seing, to another beach on the east sea of korea. We live on the west sea, went swimming there. then went to the south sea when we went to busan, now we've seen all the different oceans surrounding korea. :) And on Friday I'm going with my host family to the island cheju on the southern sea of korea. We are staying for a few day. It won't be like the Carribbean, but it will be pretty. We went to a memorial for a King. it was interesting I bet it would look a lot nicer in the Summer. there was a really small maze like stone cavern for the dragon that use to live there, some legend like that. It was too cold to stay very long.

we stopped at a Buddhist temple where they teach taekwonsung, or somthing like that. It takes so much determination and you have to be so devoted, not to mention it's like 600,000 won a month to learn, and it's pretty pointless if you don't at least go for a year. there were monk trainers all around, it was really cool. the temple is on a hill, then you can climb higher, to the statues where there are places to pray. it was really like rock climbing. I have pictures from the bottom to the top, yep and i climbed that in HEELS! it was fun, and we got some really nice pictures. the Buddha statues where nice. but my feel were killing me afterwards. at the entrance there were statues of these really strong gods, with man boobs,and they are wearing a skirt type outfit. its great, so we got pictures with us and the statues, cuz yah that's my kinda man.

We didn't get back to Seocheon until like 8. I opened my presents from the US when I got home. Beans present first. It was a lil sweater for her, and a santa clause hat. its so adorable!! me and ji-eun got lots of pictures of her. too cute! also got lots of chocolate and a "wiggles"? cute little i don't knw what. but i need to come up with a name for it! it's tooo sweet! I also got teeth whitening stuff, but its PREMIUM so it works faster. but its kind of frightening, because of all the warnings, "avoid contact with skin, may result in whitening." so thats michael jacksons secret. this morning i was all paranoid it had bleahed my hands a little,

me "my skin is white!!!!"
everyone,- noooooo really???

I talked to Nicole on Christmas eve, she said she had a dream about me coming home, thats sweet, i feel loved!

me and rose are nosing through all the tapes in the teachers room computer desk. they have ebs movies, then cds inthe top part....lets seeee
mozart,.... the great piano music...beethoven....rossine.....bach.....sir mix-a-lot...red hot chilipeppers....what? dr dre DR DRE??? woah. thats an interesting collection. donggang is more than it appears. haha

so i guess I leave on the 4th for my new family. then I will stay there for the 2 month vacation.

hope everyone had a merry christmas!!