writes: R.O.P.E. "loufe" um..i think what you mean to say is "rope" "right! loufe!"
Mood:  spacey
the trip to seoul, then the last day of school, and my trip to muju ski resort.

why does it feel like so much more has happened, and i have no motivation to do anything, except sit around all day....drooling.

a few days before school ended i took all my dried flowers down and arranged them all nice with a ribbon, and such. i wanted to bring them home, cuz they were special to me. nothing wrong with that right? then the next day i come home from school, ad they arent on my desk anymore. i search everywhere. they arent in my room, or anywhere else in the house, or the trash. so i have ji-eun call the maid person, maybe she's seen them. (i swear this woman has it out for me) an hour later she comes over, with my flowers, some what disheveled looking, but seemingly alright. she startes lecturing me in korean about my unorganized room, but i ignore most of it. i'm still concentrating on my flowers. she sets them down, and theres a funny bend in them. i pick them up, and the tops just fall right off. what did you do to my flowers?!?! she had taken them, and broken them all in half. there were only 12 flower tops left, none of the ones ojin had given me or the ones chong-yeouns family had given me when i arrived. maid lady was mad about my room being messy maybe, was this like revenge or something?!?! surprisingly enough the trash in my room hadn't even been taken out, but she did feel it was critical to maintain the tidyness of my room by mangeling my innocent dried flowers. i was soooo mad!!!!!!! my host mom gave me flowers she had gotten for her birthday. my friends hadn't given those to me, and they didn't represent each special occasion my other flowers represented, but it was really nice of her just the same. me and the babysitter haven't had a good relationship since. that makes things akward, shes here almost every day.
on a much lighter note!

seoul was really fun. yes me and dany went in mini skirts and heels. yah we really aren't stupid, but since I bought the outfit i might as well wear it, and where would be more acceptable than seoul? it's really common korean fashion to wear mini skirts and heel in the middle of winter! but yah well looked really cute. it was not warm, and at the rest stop we stopped to get food at along the way, these old guys were so obviously staring at us...ahhhh *hides behind rose* First we went to the MBC building, ate a not really great food then sat in a large waiting room for like 2 hours. but we did get go eat ice cream afterwards and take some cute pictures, so no complaints here.

we got a tour of teh place, saw a famous korean comedian being interviewed, watched 2 shows being filmed, and emilio cornered a few of the stars to have them sign his mexican flag.i didnt have my camera, no memory left, but rose and dany got pics i hope i can get copies of. reallly once you see a show being filmed the whole magic of tv is gone. there was a guy who leads the audience, and he was much funnier than the actual show. he had this GREAT FAKE SMILE and over exagerated his laughter and clapping to everyone would follow, even whena lot of it wasn't realy funny. that was interesting, i hope they got a lot of pictures of him! mr yellow shirt was no wheres to be seen, kind of dissapointing, and micah is just a translater, so she wasn't there either.

Afterwards we went to building 63, which is the tallest building in Korea with only 63 floors. that doesn't seem that tall to me. we did some quick shopping on floor 1 before going to the 63 floor. it was such an amazing view. Seoul is obviously extremly polluted, being like the 4th largest city in the world, or something close to that. but it was still a great view. all the lights, and it was dusk, you could see so much of the city! all the trees with xmas lights on them! and the roads with hard core traffic jams, the red / white car lights, it was quite a site! I've never been to new york, but i''m sure its a similar scenerio. there are large pictures of the building in differnt phases of the day, and you can stand next to them to take pics. me and dany got pics of us in what looks like king-kong type poses, "yah so on top of everything" **meehrung!** antonio took us to eat at the mcdonalds in the lower part of building 63. on teh way home we drove past the popular strip where all the dramas are based. there is a wide walk way, sort of park like, and all the trees have xmas lights on them, its relaly pretty. dany has pics of me and her there, but idno when i'll see her to get those.

Thursday, i have a terrific example of the rudeness of public bus drivers. since i was so tired from seoul i woke up late, and decided to take the later bus. jieun gave me the name of the place the bus had to be headed for it to drop me off at school. but i had no idea when to go wait for it. i chose, 9:30 to leave the house. figured that should give me enough time, and it would probably come around 9:40. but the lady at the ticket window said it would come again at 10, and i had already missed it. so i started walking to julians house, maybe he was still there, or something. half way there i see a bus go by but assume it isnt mine. then i see hyogun waving like a mad man. shit, that is my bus!!!! i run after it for like a block, which is unfun, and also drew a lot of unnecessary attention. "haha hey look at that stupid red head chasing the bus....what a dork!" yah thats how i felt. :-P haha hyogun told me later he told the guy to stop the bus, but they rarely do for those unfortunate enough to not be at the bus stop when it arrives. anyways, walked to julians, he wasnt there, walked back to bus stop A, and waited untl 10:00 for another bus. tried to get on the wrong one, looked really stupid, again. a nice korean girl helped me get the right bus. but i didn't know when to push the button, so ended up having to get off at the stop, before the school, and walking a nice chilly walk to school, eventually arriving at 10:30. damn i thought i would never get there, and if it hadn't been the second to last day of school i would have said screw it, i'm going back home to sleep!

friday was officially the last day at donggang. nothing major happened, a lot of the students were sick for reasons i can't disclose, so i didn't have many good byes to say, mostly people were passed out on desks, or not in the mood to talk. at 11 we had a quick assembly, the exchang students recieved our completion cirtificates. also, ami's little sister made sketches of each of us, that were REALLY good. mine was nice, of course it didn't look ANYTHING like me, it was way to pretty to be me! everyone told me so. koreans are brutally honest in every way. but i didnt let it get to me, the sketch had been drawn for a picture that i really looked good in. i really can look good if i try, but graduation wasnt one of those days. then a few days ago jae-hyuns japanese teacher saw my picture, and in korean tells ji-eun ohh (yogi manhi do ippo) which means this is much prettier. then looks at me and in english says "oh its very nice!" i know much more korean that she knows. i just smile, and dont say anything.

the rudeness i get sometimes when i try and talk in korean is infuriating sometimes. as if im not insecure enough about talking in korean!
me-"ahnyoung!"
them-teehee! mocks my "ahnyoung!" then laughs some more.
then i fly into fiery red head mode "hey do i comment on your crappy english?? no! at least im trying!"
and them, trying to look all cute and inocent... "bula" (i dont know/understand)
me- OF COURSE YOU DONT KNOW!!!!! hmph! *storms off to go find a more worthy subject to practice my korean on*

Instead of going to cheju islands like we had planned, we went to muju ski resort. it wasnt warm, no beaches, but skiing is always a good time. a lot of famous people had been there too. didn't i feel special! the place we stayed in was small, but cozy. no beds of course, i'm totally unphased by that by now. quite the improvement. the floor was really warm cuz they heat rooms by hot pipes in the floors, making it more comfortable to sleep on the floor than on a bed. because we gt there late, we didn't go skiing. just walked around the muju town. it was really pretty at night, all the buildings with xmas lights, and the trees with xmas lights too. me and ji-eun got a room together, and host mom dad and brother had the room next door. wohoo! we stayed up really late watching tv, and at midnight they had fireworks! being new years and all! it was nice. but the actual new year by the lunar calander is tomorrow, the 9th. they celebrate that more extensivly than new years by the western calander.

all saturday we went skiing. it was coooold, and my ski suit was borrowed from my mom, and had a rip in the crotch part. well...i didnt do it, :-P but it made for some really drafty trips down the mountain. the ski boots were also borrowed from my mom, and they wer really small. but my fam coulnt understand why i didn't wanna ski for very long. they didnt realize how dangerous it can be to be skiing along, and not have ANY FEELING WHAT SO EVER in your feet. i didnt' fall at all though, this was not anything like sugarloaf, it was maybe like sugarloafs bunnyslopes. my host dad constantly practiced his english on me, (which wouldnt be so annoying if he just used normal english, and not try to impress me with all the big words he knows.) and tried to teach me how to ski. trust me bud i already know. what i wanna learn how to do is snow board. maybe next time we go though, cuz "oppa "wanted to too, and what the brother wants,he gets. that could really work out for me and jieun too, since we both wanna try.

we left sunday afternoon, and ater i got home, honesty i didnt leave the house for like 3 days. not even going outside. thats not good for you, i found when i did go outside again, it was sooooooo bright! yeooow! the sun!!!!!!! i'm dying!!! literally, i need to get out more. rose called on wednesday night, and we arranged for her to come over! she left friday, for iksan. emilios gone to somewhere south like 4 hours away and dany left today for chongju. my comrads are all gone! rose spent wednesday night, we stayed up until 3:15 talking, what a good time. ima miss that girl like mad! *tears* at noon thursday we walked to her busstop. it wasnt a teary godbye cuz i know i will see her again real soon! its not like shes dead, and from what i hear shes got a 13 floor apartmen in iksan. i'm so jealous! haha

my original family in nonsan was a doctor, but i guess the school was making them take me and they really didn't want me...ouch. thats harsh. but i got a new family, one i know even less about. just that i'll show up with all my luggage on the 16 or something, SURPRISE! i hope you like me! *sweet smile no one can resist* that waskind of upsetting news...that my former fam didnt want me. but yea-lim said they were mean, and i'm better off with out.

thursday dany came over. i'm soooo lucky i got to see her and rose before they left! wow that has made all the other totally pointless days seem ok! dany couldn't stay the night. but she came over around noon and she dragged me out of the apartment that has become my security, i'm seriously becoming a hermit i think! haha. she had to mail some letters, but needed stamps, so we went looking for people to tell us where the post office was. "excuse me, do you know where the post office is?" who knew that would be such a great pick up line. haha

dany- look at him look at him! HEY DO YOU KNOW WHERE THE POST OFFICE IS!?

we got 3 excellent directions to the bus terminal, not really what we were looking for, and 2 just to a mailbox. but anyways it really was a good conversation starter. it only took us 4 months to find one! damn.

saturday, onul toyo-il ee-eh-yo (today is saturday) am i good or waht? we went to chongju to do some shopping. jieun had an english class at a book store that sold all english books. it was al little kids books, but hd a little shelf with books that i like to read. oens that arent for kindergartners. it had some stephen king and that kind of thing. i read and watched tv while jieun had her lesson. then we went to the hair salon near by. jieun has been nagging me non stop to cut my hair again and get bangs. so i did. it is um.... like an 80' rock star hair cut. its alright, the popular style in korea, not something i would get in the us. but i will let it grow out alil bit, maybe i'll like it more. its ok....but idno. jieun also wants me to dye it black. maybe. but the red gets a lot more attention. :)

i think thas all for now. finally. i'v needed to write that down for a while. enough procrastinating.