once in my stomach you smoked weed with a platypus made purely of sentimental graffiti
Mood:  on fire
igoo.. it started out as a really terrible week. Mornings are so hard for me. I don't know why, I wake up later, and have more time. I eat big breakfasts, and get driven to school. but I haven' been getting enough sleep, and I've been soo grouchy!! But last night I slept for a full 14 hours. Go me! That felt good. Classes with the other students is tiring! So much korean flying around and concentrating on it all makes me so exhausted! When I got home, at 5:30, I crawled into bed, contemplated making an errand to the store to get some candy for steve for his bday, (which I still havent' sent yet...) but then changed my mind and went to sleep. They didn't try waking me up for supper, but oma did come in and try to make me go to yoga with ji-eun, but i was like "yah yah yah yah...turn the light out, bye." I was felt refreshed todayQ!

It's been so cold here. Not winter jacket cold, only in the mornings. When I get to school I have an hour to do nothing while they students watch some educational program. I try and stay warm in the unheated room with no sunlight that was our old classroom! Everyone has been getting sick. I have only missed one day, due to cramps not really sickness. Rose has only been in school like two day this week. and Julian has been sick with a sinus cold or something. Emilio is out with an injury due to football? or that is the rumor going around. Me and Dany are the only ones who haven't been absent this week. Today Julian left early to go to seoul to visit JongYeon's mom with Ri. So it was just me and Dany for the rest of the day. from noon till 5. That can get lonely, but i had yea-lim and yeah-min. yea-lim is sooo cute! we were sitting at the window talking, and suddenly she looks over at the group of kids a few desks away and says something to them. everyone gets quiet...and me...what?? what happened?? what did you say?? of course it was in korean. her, 'they were hurting my eyes with the mirror they had. so i asked them if they wanted to die.' wow that was scary. haha yea-lim is so cute and queit, but she's really vicious when provoked. haha it made me laugh. chugulae?? punk?! haha i love it. *with evil eye*

yesterday we all went to elementary 2. we spent time with first grade first, then went to kindergarten and then second grade. in first grade we had english and taught them to say hi my name is so and so. and we played a name game which was fun. rose was there that day but stayed in the nurses' office and slept. poor rose!! The teachers are a lot nicer, and we get more out of it if we are spending time with the students, which we get to do in grades kin-2 or third. in 5th and 6th, all we do is learn the math, and english. trust me already know what you can teach me in those subjects. if you can't it's words yealim cant even translate for me and that's totally pointless! elementary school 1 irritates me, i think I might start skipping those days. Kindergarten was fun. The kids made chamjari (dragonflies) and they were allowed to use the hot glue gun. wow they put a lot of trust in those kids. julian said "i'm surprised someone hasn't died yet!" yah me too. i kept my dragonfly, it's cute! Then the second graders were all outside playing soccer so I hung out in the nurses station with my fellow comrad, rosie. I wish she'd get better!! No one knows what is wrong wtih her. it's scary, she should probably go to a hospital in seoul or something with professionals. There is no cough syrup here, and no cough drops. So I've got to try really hard and nto get a cold while I'm here or I'll be in the same position as Rose. Us americans arent' use to the Korean cold. And all you mainers thought the common maine cold was bad!

After the elementary school yesterday we came back to the middleschool. We had to teach class still too. That is unfun. We went over what we were going to do as a class in the festival on the 24. We have to dress in traditional american outfits, and do a traditional dance to traditional american music. what?! ok so we are dressing as rock stars, dancing to hound dog by elvis. Thankfully julian has that song wtih him. what luck! Our first idea was to dress up as indians and do a rain dance to the beat of a drum. not really traditional since we'd be making it all up, and we're not even native americans. haha :) so rock stars it is. No one in teh class can agree on anything! I get sooo flustered!Most of the time we don't do anything in that class, that works out fine. Kim ga-bin had stopped coming in to check on us. so what ever works right? They love the hound dog song. Ji-eun was singing it in teh car 'youuhnunhda hound dog! duhnaanadana' haha she is the greatest. as least shes got the idea of it!

So what else is new. I had a million things to say when I started writing. Then I got sidetracked. Oh yah! mcb did a documentary on donggang middleschool, it is more accurately called the documentary on the spanish inclined inbound/out bound exchange students. emilio and his family, dany and her family, and huzgie, a lot about dany and huzgie. but emilio got his fair share too. nothing on rose, what so ever! and a few clips of me and julian here and there. I don't really mind. I hate being infront of a camera but i love seeing myself on film. That's weired. rose wouldn't have been dissapointed. They did just what she had expected. Didn't have anything on her in there. they also didn't have our interviews. so that was a waste of my time. I'll still e-mail micah to get the pictures they had taken. I wanna see those on the day they left. :)

I started Yoga with Ji-eun tonight. That was a good time, but i'm soo sore! those asians can flex in ways i never imagined! I'm more flexable than maybe 2 of them. Ji-eun is not flexable.... at all! she can't crouch like the other koreans and she doesnt like spicy food either. I think she's more american than she is korean. The yoga instructer was really nice. I didn't understand what he was saying, but I mostly went by what everyone else was doing, and I followed pretty well. We had to do one where we layed on our stomach, and put our handsunderneith us at our pelvic region, palms on the matt, elbows out, and lift our feet off the ground. AHHHHHHHHHH try it. it kills! if it doesn't your not doing it right. everyone there was in pain. I don't streatch at all here, since I'm not doing any sports, or anything the remotly resembles athletic, and when i twist i can feel all this extra weight...its so..not me! where did that come from!? ugh it makes me depressed, and I eat more. haha like kim gabin tells us in english class if you are unhappy you will eat ice cream, and if you eat ice cream you will get fat. so be happy cuz you won't eat, and you will be skinny. unhappy people are fat. uhhh right. those are some words to live by. haha!

Oh tomorrow is Saturday lovely Saturday! No elementary no english classes, just half a day! and I think dany is coming over, or i am going to yea-lims for bowling, or maybe we are all going to the korean teachers house. uh i forget.

I think the korean teacher may be a tad bit slow. like yah...you know what I mean. ok we're leaving the elementary school yesterday. we get to his car, and we just sit there, at the gates for what must have been 5 minutes. Just sitting there. he didnt say anythign. finally i asked, ok so what are we waiting for? 'oeron? owen?' what huh? oeron owen? (left or right) so he asks us in english. very slow english, like he's thinking about it really hard 'leeeft or riiiiight hnm' umm right. yah we should go right. *we jsut sit there for a few more moments* so julians askes, well waht do you think? he says, 'i think.....leeeeeeft.' *a few more moments.... starts to shift'. finally we pull out, going at a speed I'm sure is hazerdous to other korean drives who are actaully driving the speedlimit. we must have been going 40, what ever the measurement is. a lot less than 40mph and just put puttin along. he points out a few things we go by, slowly drifting to the other side of the road. then back. we sit at a green light for a little while....then go to a store. *pullover* 'iiicecream?' yah yah yah yah yah! 'putputput so we finally FINALLY made it back to the school. wow it was a lot like that. understand? haha not that I dont appreciate him giving us a tour of the coutry side and getting us ice cream (or whatever it was) but what was he on?!!

ok i've gone on and on about the korean teacher i should stop somewheres! I've been pretty faithful to my email, and I got an email from cayla that was so sweet! I miss cayla, and Heather,and Katie. Havn't heard much from Katie since I've been here. But I really lack a closeness to the Koreans that I had with them. I didn't spend enough time with my girlfriends before I left. But I'm close with rose, and we're kind of dependent on eachother.

ok so now i'm off to bed, it is sooo late!! i'll be so sleep deprived tomorrow! maybe the 14 hours will even itself out there, or something.

new pics from roses album in mine too, no names yet, but it's a good time still.

lori

the good the bad and the spicy!
Mood:  cheeky
Today was Ri's birthday !! HAPPY BIRTHDAY RI!! me seo-jong ri and yea-lim went out to eat pizza. we met up with julian and all went to the noraebang. at lunch dany brought in a cake for her, with candles and the whole deal. the camera men were all over that! haha. it gets soo old because everything is so fake. oh oh please redo that, yah your walk from the cafe to the school, except with all these people, and pretend your friends with them, and your on your way to class to talk about what you are going to learn. yah sure what ever you say. dany absorbs it like mad. I'd rather not. but they left today, and it was sad, cuz some of them were really nice. Micah Chun, who reminded me of cassidy sooo much, it was frightening. she was so easy to talk to and her english was good.I felt more comfortable around her cuz it's like just talkin to cassidy. the interviews were horrible, like always. the questions are so repative, and i don't know how to respond. maybe i'll get better as they go. More likely I'll develope a phobia for camera crews. before they left they got pictures with us, and they will send them to us which is nice. I haven't seen any of the picutes any of the other photo people have taken. They wanted us to visit them in seoul some time too. Micah lives in seoul and said just to email here when we were coming and she would meet us at the train station. gotta love that! It was sad to see them go though. I'm not going to miss the oh please redo this, or please pretend you're doing this...

Over the weekend I went with my family to Gunsan shopping. It has a really cool outside mall. I wish seocheon had something like that! I want to go to a city when we go to highschool, but I odn't know if I want to leave this family. I'll miss Ji-eun. we have so much fun. she's great! and bean too....haha bean needs me! I don't have to make that decision for another few months so I'm not going to worry! ok off track, sorry. after gunsan we went bowling!! I haven't gone bowling for sooo long! I didn't do too bad. Ji-eun is terrible at bowling. He best score was 15. no seriously, 15. haha she is a good sport about it. Mine was 102 the first time and 87 maybe the second game. that was etnertaining. I think I'm going bowling again this saturday with yea-lims family!

Speaking of bowling....rose hasn't been in school and being a good friend and all i was really worried. I hadn't seen her since friday when seh stayed the night. it's funny, i talk to my american friends and during every conversations, 'so where's rose at', always comes up! hah they don't love me they just want rose! i see!! but no i love rose. We had a good long phone conversation about....radish duck feet? and pooping off balconies. it would be pretty funny to die falling off a balcony trying to take a poop. wow what would the media say? i'd never know cuz it is in korean, and i'd be dead. but its still entertaining to think about.:)

Ummm on saturday... I got my hair cut! ( uhhh and that's exciting?) no really it is! and mom says oh wow you look like tracy! but no.... i don't think so. I'm still "the cute one, she's just my sister" remember that madam belgium! hah!

I'm in normal classes now!! graduating from our secluded 5 student class to a big classroom with normal classes is like graduating from special ed! yay for me!! yay for me!! I like having the social interaction wth the other students not just the exchange students. not that I didn't absolutely CHERISH all the time i spend wth my exchange student friends! i do! :) ahh Jin-Suk moved today! omg i forgot to tell rose, she'll be devistated to find out tomorrow! crap...i'm a bad friend. I'm really really going to miss Jin-suk!! she is so sweet!!!! we had a party for her in our english class yesterday. that made her a little teary...:( awww! she is moving to seoul to go to a highshool there. Who knows why, and it wasn't her decision. I got some pics of us today before she left, which I will have to post asap!

I think the elementary school went well today, it was only me dany and emilio that went. Got in a fight with the 5th grade teacher and started going off on him in english that he didn't understand at all. come to my class now!! we have english!! you need to study!! in his all hitler ish voice. and me, yah i alreayd know english, and kim gabin specifically told you we werent here to teach english. that's what started it. stupid english classes. But besides taht everything went smoothly!

it's late and my host mom is nagging me to get to bed. They love to nag, honestly, it's always something. very few things about htis family irks me, but the nagging is one. i can't start the first thing they tell me to do before they are on my case about something else. please, chill. let me be, i got this under control! uh but anyways, i'm off to bed, I didn't get nearly enough sleep last night!

-lori-

ieee yie yie yie yie
Mood:  chillin'
Everyone's been cramming for midterms. They started today, and it was only a half day. I'm not taking midterms so I'm not too worried. tomorrow and saturday are half days too. After midterms we start taking normal classes with the other students. That will be interesting, I really don't know what to expect.

Today we were suppose to go to daejon to get my visa switched, but I didn't go to school today. My stomach hurt so bad. Me writhing in pain in the morning as my family proceds to interrogate me about why I left my window open, and did I want anything to eat, but their intenions were good. I slept most of the day, read some, and studies from the korean book I bought. The one we got here isn't really helpful because the expressions aren't ones they use a lot. Ji-eun came home around 1 or 2 and studied with me. It was good bonding time, studying together on the floor in the living room. Even though I sent my visa and money and pictures with Ji-eun today to give to KIm Ga-bin they didn't go to taejon. Julian was absent too, and maybe we have to be there in taejon with them to get the visa switched. It was funny, my family kept asking me why Julian was absent. Umm, i didnt know he was absent. (?) haha Like we planned it. Oook!

So anyways, we're making the trip to taejon tomorrow to switch the visas to student visas.

The exchange students have been discussing the decision to stop going to the elementary schools. We really don't get anything out of it, and it's so exhausting. On Tuesday when we went the exchange students only went to one class. Actually the nurse let me stay in her office and sleep for the first class. She is so nice, and I was having a rough start to my day. We went on a field trip, to "the mountain" but we didn't hike up it, it was just more like a nature walk. The kids were fun too. We freed 3 tree frogs from the empty pool (me and rose) yes you can call me god. Actually Julian turned on the hose and they came flying out at us, I almost died, it was so scary! but we rescued them anyways. I'm such a good person! Me and Emilio got into a water fight, really it was me and emilio against al the kids. I got soaking wet but it was fun, and revenge is sooo sweet. Me and Emilio won in the end. mwahahaha luckily It was warm that day.

The weather here is so random! One day it is warm adn sunny and the next, freezing! and everything changes like mad. The rice fields went from a healthy green to pale yellow in 3 or 4 days. No joke. It isn't like Maine at all, where the change is slight. I miss autumn in maine. I love it.

ok the picture IN school....THE FOOT

really, it's so uncalled for. so nausiating...

Some smoking prevention thing came in with a van load of big posters that had "reasons not to smoke" all in korean, and the statistics, and then these hidious pictures of people who have gum diseases, and rotten mouths, pictures of lungs of smokers, I've seen it all before. But the last picture...the one on the right as you are headed for the second building. THAT ONE. oh...igoo

it's of this detached foot. Not like the picture cuts off the foot at the ankle, but like the foot has rotted to the point of decay and fallen off like a fungus infected dead toenail. But it's worse than that and the toes are all disfigured or missing. it seems to be wrapped in a bandage, but it could possible be swolen foot fat. and there's a smaller picture of a hand that must have met the same terrible fate, (maybe an atomic bomb) but this person wasn't just killed from smoking. OH GOD I couldn't even walk to the classroom. I got in trouble for turning it around, but the teacher eventually sympathized with me and moved it to a different hallway, and apologized to me. thaaaaaaaaank you sooooo much. That was a serious problem for about a week.

I haven't been able to sleep very well, I think it's just like, pms or something. all these thoughts. I dont' know. rose coughed on me now I've caught her insomnia. thanks rose! haha but horray for midterms and half days. Not going to school today helped me catch up on some z's too. It's late now, I spent a long time writing e-mails today, wrote my monthly report to the rotary and wrote back to my guidance councellor. She wrote me a very reassuring email saying if don't stress out! and if I want to say in middleschool instead of going to highschool, those hours would still count towards my mt view credits. I'm thinking maybe highschool isn't such a good idea. 13 hours a day. yuck. how much korean culture am I going to learn if I'm in a school, teh same school with the same people preacticaly every hour of every day learning things I could be learning in the us!? we'll see how taht goes, but it's good to know I'm not pressed to get credits, and I can always take summer classes or night classes for math and science when I get back. or maybe a buddhist highschool...doesnt go for 13 hours a day. That would be the ultimate korean experience. haha. just siting around meditating all day? yah i think I can do that.

Ok all for now I'm off to bed!

oh no someone shaved my bean!!
Mood:  lazy
Weekend finally, and I have nothing to do! Where is everyone?! We only have one day off, and I spend it doing nothing at home. I'm such a loser. I guess it could be worse, I could have to go to an academy all day like Ji-eun does. But what happened to going shoppig?? And I wasn't able to get ahold of any of my friends this weekend, like I'm usually able to do via aol or something. I've got this new program up and running, skype and I've been able to talk to mom and gram on there already. That was really exciting, mom told me gram was just over the moon to be able to hear my voice even though I'm so far away. Mom said to send her some pictures but seriously, everytime the subject of mail comes up, I get that much more frustrated! wow I could go on forever abut how disgusted I am with that entire situation. The nerve of some people. If you pay to have something delivered it shouldn't be the postmans decision whether it gets there or not. That's so illegal, but it happenes so frequently, shouldn't we be able to sue or something!? we're still hoping it will get to tracy, it was so expensive, and the cost to send it was an exhuberant amount too. but no, you ALSO have to get insurance or you can bet your ass it will NEVER GET THERE. m*th** f***ers grrrrrrr.

ok this is me moving on to a new subject! (feel free to post comments, sometimes I feel like I'm spilling my guts to a blank wall... it's depressing)

It's october. It is deffinately Autumn. The leaves are slowly changing, but the land is still green because of the rice fields. The air is brisker, but the change isn't as subtle as it is in Maine. Some days it's too hot for the winter uniform (which I can't fit around my waiste any more *blush* but hey it was too small to begin with!) Then other days it's so cold you have to wear a longsleeved shirt, and a swaeter and that usually isn't enough. Emilio and Dany have never felt weather this cold, and it was hilarious listining to them describe their reactions to it. Dany said she woke up in the morning and her room was all nice and warm. Then she opened the door to go out into the living room, and froze, hand still on the door nob, she couldn't move. Literally frozed in place. Of course mexico never gets nearly this cold, Dany and Emilio were taking the cold days far worse than anyone else. We were suppose to hit up Gunsan today to buy some nice boots *maxine style boots* and goose down jackets. But we have to take a korean with us shopping and no one could go because everyone is knocking themselves out studying for this upcoming midterm. I'm not worried. I think I have what I need to know down pretty well. Maybe even then some. We'll how different the tests are, can't wait. hah...

Autumn is really my fav. season, something in the air is just so *sigh* I don't know what it reminds me of, but something really relaxing. Everything good happens in the fall. wonderful wonderful de ja vux. idno how you spell that, but that looks right.

I only had 2.5 days of school this week including saturday. thursday was such an unmotivational week, I've been so resistant of anything. But the korean is coming along better than ever. I feel like I'm absorbing everything I hear too. hey maybe this is what rose was talking about! oh oh oh! and rose wasn't in school at all this week. I didn't talk to her over cheosok break either, so i'm craving my rose dosage right about now! haha. but no, seriously, she's been really sick, so I'm worried! Just read her blog, so she is still up and kickin, but I'm too scared of telephones here to call her. I'm such a bad friend. :( But we had to go on with out her... Thursday was an elementary day. It was fun, even though I had to practically be dragged there, and forced to participate in everything. We spent some time with the kindergartners, *you could actually see dany's face light up*
dany- is this the school with--
me-yupp it's over there.
we read to them but they didn't know what we were saying, but it was a good change of scenery anyways. We went to the 4th grade and had arm wrestling competitions. The teacher just abandoned us with the kids. Those kids are beastly! Some of them almost beat me. and they are only 4th graders!! I'm pathetic. but it was fun. Then we had an english class with th 3rd graders. We sang "who is she who is she? she is julie julie is my friend....who is he who is he? he is -- some korean name .."skn" is my friend" Oh I hated that cuz that song was stuck in my head all day. Then back at the mid school I had to teach the english class, all 30 students, by myself. we played hangman, since that's a well liked game, and I didn't have to teach them anything. Then I misspelled vegetables, and looked really stupid. I love it when I do things like that. My face turned about 5 shades of red on top of my already noticable sunburn from cheosok. I'm a failur at english. Even at a 5th graders level. haha On Friday we grouped all the classes together in the cafeteria and played a game, I don't know the name. It's a Korean game. That was a pretty big hit. oh oh oh, love is in the air....blah blah blah, EUN-YOUNG has a boyfriend! oh its the talk of the entire middleschool!! I feel like a middleschooler again! haha it was so cute, during the game they were holding hands and they ended up winning over all. So adorable. oh the innocence of middleschool. We've been expecting to get a puppy all week. We gave ann away a while ago, duno if I ever wrote that. Not a big loss cuz she was really mean, and smelly, and the only time i ever saw her was when she escaped her confinement and attacked me or my ankles. bad ann! so she is now residing with the grandparents. But we were suppoes to get a shitzu. That sort of fell through, I dont know. But saturday after school since I didn't go to Gunsan I just took a 5 hour nap. Oma woke me up and told me were goin to the animal hospital to get our new dog. and me what!? yay. It looks like a bishon frise, but oma insists it's a poodle. it would be much bigger if it were a poodle, but my korean isnt advanced enough to argue with her. I got to name it of course. We couldnt call her ann cuz tht was already taken. So I named her Bean. She's about a year old. and she was free. soo cute! she's my dog! She sleeps in my room, next to my bed, and i get to clean up all her messes *big sh-- eatin grin* I'm surprised how possessive I've become. Since nothing here is really mine, what I do have, I get territorial over. This is MY DOG and this is MY GUITAR, n this is MY CAMERA, so on and so forth. not a habit I am intending to keep. I feel guilty. I just recently became aware of it, but now that I've noticed it I can cut down on it right?

Today has been pretty much totaly based around BEAN. At 9 we took her to the hair salon next to the apartment to have her shaved. I didn't want to cuz she was so cute and fluffy, and she woundnt get cold. But I guess host dad had a prob with it. So the woman got out her shavers and just started hacking away at bean. it was a messy job and she kept cutting bean. she nicked her real good above her tail, and again behind each ears and under her front and back legs. she cut it so short bean will surely die of the cold, and right now shes covered in razor burn. shes practically bald. I couldn't watch the end of it, she was jsut so ruthless, bean is a wreck! so we took her to the animal hospital to get her nails clipped. he cut them too short, and one started bleeding really bad. that got all over eveything,and to stop the bleeding he burned the end up it, wchich like,melted the tip or something. That was so painful to watch. Disgusting. But he gave us some clothes for her cuz the weather even now, that's really mild, is still too cold for her. but we got her home again in one piece (barely) she is not happy with me. She stays with me, right now shes sleeping next to my comptuer chair. Shes deffinately my dog. I wanna bring her home with me. How much woul it cost to bring a dog back?? haha oh my bean is so cute!

so I guess that's all fr now

-lori-

time is something you can't rewind
Mood:  bright
it's been one of those weeks i guess, I feel like i'v accomplished nothing, yet I never have time to update this or write any adaquate emails. I feel so behind, and when I think about how long it will take me to get updated, I feel even less motivated to sit down and start. So I put it off until it's so bad that no one even reads it any more. It could possibly be getting to that point. Maybe it just feels like I haven't written for a long time. It always does, but I always have a lot to say, no matter how far behind I am.

I guess Tuesday...I could start there. How much I remember of Tuesday is questionable...maybe I'll just make some of it up, to keep everyone entertained. (oh no, is rose wearing off on me that much??? eeeyup) haha we have too much fun.

It was an elementary day! horray! we went to a concerty type performance done by the children from different schools. there were some groups that did flutes, all the same song. that got annoying after about the4th time. luckily there were only 4 groups that did flutes. then the samerloni (is that how you'd say it) came on. it was great, at first. but they had 10 groups doing it, and each one was like 5 minutes long! then there was like an hour break and we all hung out at the performance theather with the kids. they are getting nicer. Well, no one tried to bite us this time. and i'v made friends!! sookie is one of my friends. she's also the only one whose name i can remember. she's such a sweet heart though. then the second half were unique performances some individual, some done in groups. they were really cute. i went right home after that, didn't go back to donggang so tuesday was pretty relaxed. I enjoyed not having classes to go to. I brought my guitar to school on wednesday. the music room has 2 huge amps and it kicks so much butt! the music teach. lets us go in when ever we want and play. garreth has some issues with it, he teaches in the next room, but he can shove it. no one asked him. I attended one of his english classes only because dany wanted me to go with her. the entire time he made fun of me being a "yank" and so on. No we don't get along. I printed out amillion guitar tabs but i havent been in school enough since to practice guitar. Besides wednesday we havent been having normal school days, and saturday isnt normal anyways cuz it's only half a day. I'm finally working my callouses back from playing guitar. i'm so impressed with myself.

Thursday was suppose to be an elementary school day, but Donggang was having a sports day. So now we've been to 3 sports days. I was really not that impressed with any of them. But the middle schools was deffinately the best, because we participated with people our own age. There were races and volley ball games, and all sorts of fun stuff. I expected to get sunburned so it was no big surprise. It happens too often for me to get upset about it any more. :( At noon me and the rest of the exchange students went to the Rotarty's Luncheon in seocheon. We are actually part of the Rotary in Seoul, but that's sooo far away, we aren't expected to attend their meetings very often. Maybe some time in November? I have no idea. But this Rotary was very small and organized. we had to introduce myself, and surprisingly my face didn't turn 5 million shades of red, like it usually does when talking infront of people. This could be because of the already present sunburn, maybe you just couldnt tell. But hey I think this is an improvement? haha. After the lunch me and rose, being highly skilled photograpers :D got some really nice pictures of the squatter toilets. I love it! I'm going to scrapbook a whole layout, if not 2 or 3, just on the squatter toilets! and Korean showers! The exchange students were taken bck to donggang but I fell soundly asleep in the deserted classroom while evreyone else ate chicken! I MISSED OUT ON EATING CHICKEN!! REAL FREAKIN CHICKEN! you have absolutely no idea how depressing that is. *sigh* Later me and Julian took a walk around Seocheon, I wanted to search out some new stores, but we didn't come across anything important. We took random sideroads and still ended up on a rice road I knew would take us back to the apartment. That's what I love about being in a 13th floor apartment, besides teh view, I can never get lost in Seochoen cuz there is usually a clear view of the apartment building.

Friday was the picnic. It would have been a lot more fun had I not only gotten 4 or 4.5 hours of sleep. and would you believe I was up all night studying!? yah, i'm deffinately becoming Korean all right. The buses were waiting when we got to school. We were almost late, it was a close call. Mostly my fault *oops* but yah it happens. The picnic was more like a tour to some Really pretty places in Korea. Well the first place was sort of sketchy. I don't know what the significance was but it looked to me like water that was sooo polluted it was green, and had bouyes in it, to absorbe the oil. wow, i could have seen that at sandborn pond! but I took pictures anyways, any excuse is a good excuse to use my camera! The second stop was at anmyeondo. That was so beautiful! As soon as I can I'll put those pictures in my photo album. But who knows when that will be..heh. We stayed there for a while, went down to the 2 islands and found some nice shells. I got a few good pictures too. The whole atmosphere was so nice. So oceany and ahhhh, relaxing. We ate lunch there, then Rose Yea-lim, and me took a walk to the bridge. It was bright orange, and really interesting looking, I wish I had gotten some pictures mainly of the bridges structure itself, but I got some nice pictures of us all together on the bridge. That was the only other stop for the day, not including the quick stop at the store for ice cream! yay! Me and rose talked the whole bus ride back, which was soo entertaining. everyone else who could speak english was sleeping, so we talked about all our memories from the united states, and just, everything! it was almost as fun as the night I stayed at her house! We should write a book. that would be interesting!

then on saturday...the reporters were there, but they are fun. Not scary like the other guy. (Whose entire document had been on dany prety much) perv. haha. We stayed in the classroom all day, and no one came in to teach us class, so we just hung out, and did nothing. Then with about half an hour before we got out of school kim gabin came in and goes, "why arent you at your designated rooms?" we get one day a month where we choose an activity (music art etc) and just do that all day. well aparently saturday was that day, and no one had bothered to inform us. hello, we dont a calender of the school functions. If she doesn't tell us, we have no way of knowing! Nice. I printed out some more guitar tabs and played some guitar. The camera man wanted to get some footage of me playing, but noooo, i'm too shy to play around most of my friends, no way in hell are you gonna put that on national tv! nope. sorry. I dont even remember what happened the rest of saturday. Maybe I went somewheres. I honestly have no recolections after school ended. I studied korean some, which was really no use, the minute I read the word it's already found a way to escape my memory. And Korean is teh only class I'm taking. You'd think I'd be doing alright. Well I'm at teh same level as everyone else in my class. A few steps behind rose, but everyone is always going to be a few steps behind her. I try and get involved in conversations, but unless they are asking what is this what is that? i'm really lost. So I sit and watch Korean tv, which is all in korean, with korean subtitles some times. It is soo exhausting to try and follow that. My brain bleeds...it's trying so hard. haha. but i'm picking up a few words here and there. Nothing fantastic.

On monday the whole family took a trip to CO??'Iharmani's house, (grandmothers house) for the autumn moon festival. The house was in a small village but it was a very nice house. I really want to use the korean style design when I have my own house (it'll happen). If tracy could only see they kind of archecture they use here, it would be so beautiful and space efficient to use in some of the houses in the US. harmani was really nice too. She reminded me a lot of grammy F. I didn't understand most of what she or anyone else was saying. (they could have and probably were, saying I was lazy and stupid because I slept a lot, and didn't know anything that they were saying!!) but they had kind faces and made me eat a lot. So I guess it doesn't matter! haha. Tuesday was the actual day of the festival. We had to get up early, as in 7, (i was teh last person out of bed, and everyone was already there when I woke up) The house was full of family members, and there was a lot of food. The men eat first, then the women. After the ceremony, where you bow twice to the food being served (which is surprisingly difficult in those poofy hanboks!) we went to the next house, another brothers house. we had missed the ceremony there but caught the one at the third brothers house. It was nice, and I got some pictures. None of me in my spiffy hanbok though, which was too bad. :( The day seemed to last forever! But I found a good book, "a widow for a year" that keeps me from going insane. The book itself isnt too great, but it's english, and i'm starved of anything english in the long run, so it will do. I'v been taking naps everyday around 1 or 2 which is pathetic since i haven't done any strenuous activities for so long! I'v put on weight now matter how you look at it, and i'm not at all motivated to work it off.

Today is the last day we have off from school. I'm alright with that. I need the socialization back. My family, especially my host dad, has some what been getting on my nerves. Asking the same stupid questions a million times a day. Even after I answer him he repeated asks. ahh just shut up! haha no i'd never say that, but sometimes after the 3rd 4th time i just stare at him. he gets the picture. host mom isnt nearly as bad, but everything I do she asks me whyyy?? I go to get a cup of water. whyyyy? cuz i'm thirsty. pegonaeyo? go to beeeeed?? no. im just thristy. its laaaaaaaaate? go to beeeeed? later. not right now. whyyyyy? haha my family cracks me up. Ji-eun prolly has the best english. even though her dad is constantly correcting her with his terrible pronunciation. it's a lost cause. But we get along good anyways! I feel terrible about tracy's situation, though. hopefully she will be able to switch families. Maybe to laurie's family. I think they are very nice. Look at how cool laurie is!

alright I am finally done. good luck with that. I will try and update more often so I don't have to go on long speals like that again. Seriously, I just spent a good 3 hours writing that. I get sidetracked easily though. but still.

later -lori-

konbae
Mood:  celebratory
Konbae!! (that means cheers!) Because I have been here a whole month! Kim Gabin asks, "Is one month special for you?" but hey, any excuse is a good excuse to celebrate! And yeah, one month is special! I have accomplished so much since I've been here, and when I look back over what I've done, I see how much I've already changed. It's so amazing, I can only imagine how different I'll be 6 months from now!!

Last night my parents took me out to eat at a really nice restaurant! It is a bird observatory and the 11th floor is the restaurant. It goes in a circle, and the tables are on a platform that rotates slowly, so your view is always changing. You can see practically the whole city of Gunsan. We brought my grandfather too. He doesn't speak any english, so that pretty much eliminated me from the main conversations, but i really didn't mind. I think just listining to them helps me absorb some of the language. It at least gets me use to hearing it.

My host mom bought me a hanbok. I was so excited. I had watned one since I first got here. It is so pretty and I'm extremely thankful! yes me and my host mom are getting along quite well! it was a lil rough to begin with, but look how good they turned out. :) My hanbok is bright pink, with a white top. The 27th 28th and 29th are koreans equivilant to thanksgiving. I get to wear my hanbok and eat a lot. I think we go to either the fathers house, or an uncles house. I haven't met any uncles yet. Who knows, but the eating part sounds exciting, as if i havent' gained enough weight already!

So i'v been staying busy with this and that. 2 days ago Ye-il invited me and rose to visit the academy he goes to. yea-lim and yea-min go too, so we all went out to eat before making an appearence at (haggwan) academy at 7. That was fun, all the students were pretty impressed with us, and interrogated us about (miguk) america and "do you have a boyfriend?!?!?!" that has to be the most commonly asked question. It's like a soap opera. Usually people don't have boyfriends or girlfriends until highschool or college. but they are all curious about dating and watch so much drama television it makes me laugh!

On Tuesday the exchange students all went to the Elementary 1, and had normal classes with the students in the 5th grade. next week we have classes with the 6th graders. We had 2 math classes, a music class and english class. I got absolutely nothing from the mathclasses. we couldnt talk to the kids. Just multiply...as if we need the review. come on, give us something useful to do! music class was an improvement. we sang with the kids, and i made 2 new friends! they are such sweethearts. Almost no english, but we can communicate somehow! (p'yal) means star. that's all i got out of music class. English class was the most productful. we sat in groups and had a chance to meet the students. The teacher had us act out a skit from a book so they could hear the words from a native speaker. even the teachers pronunciation is poor. I don't know how they ever learn english. It was not half bad. The teacher is kind of scary, and i'm looking forward to switching to the 6th grade next week, that teacher seems so much nicer!

Tomorrow my host mom is sending a package of mine out to the post office. The plan was to send it much earlier, but sorry everyone, i jsut got busy with other things! so tracys cameras and mom's package are finally in the mail. As for jesse's card....well...Korea doesn't believe in greeting cards. They don't believe in any sort of card. i'll have to make one, using my astounding creativity.... hah hah hah. But trust me, i will send a card. Even if it does look like a 4 year old made it! I'm invisioning that by the time it gets there Jesse will be fine judging by how long it takes mail to get anywhere, and in hopes jesse has a speedy recovery!

Dany has promised to teach me spanish, which i'm really enthusiased about learning. the korean is coming along very slow. Dany was going to come over monday wednesday and friday but so far was only able to make it on monday. Languages don't come as easily to me as they do for rose, or dany. dany and emilio already know 2 languages! that seems so amazing to me! I studied german for 2 years and I can't have a conversations wth someone in german! but dany has taken english for 2 years, and she's very very good at it. She says she wants to learn more, and speaking it with me and rose helps her a lot. so i'll help her improve her english and she will help me with spanish!

Tomorrow we go to the Elementary 2. I'm pretty excited about that, the kids there are really adorable!!! We were suppose to go today but we chose to go on friday instead cuz friday is their "fun day" like the other elementary had.

its kinda late and i have a lot of other stuff to do, so i'll end it here.

-che.min-

1...2...3...kimchi!!
Mood:  incredulous
"urbane * \er-BAYN\ * adjective
: notably polite or polished in manner

Example sentence:
Korea is the epitome of an urbane population. their expectations are for the people to be meticulously groomed, faultlessly polite, always poised and gracious in every situation. "

^a revised example from the websters dictionary

i have a whole new appeal for the english language now. it seems like such a better alternative to learning korean. but the korean is still coming along.... slow... no word yet from the german teacher. that would really help.

I think my english classes are getting better. We're working on sentences, and rose taught me a few of the simple basics of the english language and sentence structure, all of which i skillfully avoided learning during my elementary and middleschool years. (can i get a 'horray!' for mt view rejects?) yeah.

today was saturday, (oh glorious saturday) and we only had half a day of school. It was fun and laid back. kim gabin took us to an old fashioned style farm house. it had all the antique farming equipment. the explinations for these rice farming utensils wasn't really exciting. we have farms in maine too, with just as much farming equipment, and it's just as unappealing. but after the tour we sat with the owner and ate grapes and drank coffee. we stayed for a few hours. it was a good time, and they took some pictures which i'll get sometime, and post! :)

on Thursday we went to a diferent elementary school. I like this one better, and the children aren't as scary. It had a seperate kindergarten, and we can go there if we want. the kids are sooo adorable!! i miss collin sisi and darrell so much! we didn't attend any classes, instead we went to a play with the kids. we took the bus with the kindergarteners, and they kind of chose which exchange students they wanted to sit with. my 2 were sooo cute! 2 girls. julian was bombarded by like 5 boys, daniela was so jealous! one looked just like a cabbage patch doll, omg! the play was maybe an hour. it was entertaining. i'll add the pics of us with "our kids" :)

friday we went to the elementary school we had gone to on tuesday. i'll call that elem. 1. they had a sports day were were "invited" to attend. we didn't participate in much of the events, just the stretching. my host mom went for a little bit, and we got to talk to some of the kids, which was amusing because they don't speak english, maybe a few words, and we only speak a few words of korean. but we had fun! this school has banasters that you can slide down. and we did! julian has the pictures for it. me and dany were going to go to the computer room, but the door was locked. (that never stops anyone at dong-gang,) so we slid the window open and jumped in. all was fine till i went through the window, then this alarm thing went off! ahh! we ran out, and acted all innocent, and i guess someone turned it off, but we didn't get in any trouble. it was a pretty fun day over all i think, but it was sooo long. i got home and went right to sleep at 8 o' clock!

thursday me and julian went for a jog around seocheon (+ sprinted down the 13 flights of stairs so fast my head was spinning at the bottom....) then the sports day on friday, and today me and rose went swimming with yea-lim and her family. all this exercise i think i can handle.

yea-lim's family is really great. it would have been a whole different experience if i had been living with them. we ate pizza, and after we went swimming we went out to eat mcdonalds food. i'v gained 10 pounds since i'v been here, and i'll never be able to lose it at this rate.

swimming was fun, i had to waer a cute lil swimming cap like pro swimmers do, i felt sooo hot. yep. but everyone had to so we all all looked equally stupid. :) swimmng was fun, i kicked so much butt in the race between me rose yea-min and ye-il :P

host dad wants to teach me a korean game, its like checkers or chess, or something like that...so i'm gonna go absorb the korean culture. :)

-lori-

L--U--N--G "rung!!" a nd W--O--O--D--S "oozeh!!"
Mood:  lyrical
"i wished for you on a falling star wonderin where you are, do i ever cross your mind?"

i'm doin' alright, despite the cold and lack of sleep! actually i feel great right now! i was just reading through some other blogs of travelers at tripod, it's pretty entertaining. No one from korea though, so far.

i havent written since sunday. so monday i started teaching my classes for english. i really hope i recieve my english credit for that back in the states. I'm mildly worried how i'm going to make credits in the us, if i only go to a high shcool for half a year. english is the only credit i absolutly have to get because i don't want to take 2 english classes my senior year. Its my opinion i should recieve some credit for the class i'm teaching, if i can get kim gabin to contact mt views guidance councelor or some thing like that. monday's class was unproductful. rose wasn't there, so i had her students too. that was fun i guess. ok it really wasnt, i was totally unprepared and even though i had yea-lim and jin-suk for help, i was pretty much flying solo on that one. they had even less experience than i did at teaching a class. so i went through their names, i know several of the students, but the people i'm familiar with were all in rose's class. :( but i'm getting better at remembering faces, and they have english names too. i am going to memorize thri korean names too, out or respect. MOnday was so much fun, except for the english class. we didn't have any tests cuz rose wasn't there. yay! we did get a lecture though, like the one we recieved on sunday. that was crumby, but it was better than a test! pretty much she said we couldnt go anywheres unless we were with our host family. bs, and no one took her seriously. after school i went to julians house to "study" but instead we hung out with his mom and hee-sung, and had snacks. later we studied some vocab words, and the plan was to go jogging but i was sooo tired, this cold is kicking my butt. so rain check on jogging.

tuesday, um yep that was yesterday...

rose was back on tuesday. we were all suppose to arrive at school early to catch an elementary school bus to the elementary school. unfortunatly my family got me to school JUST AS THE BUS WAS LEAVING, oops! so kim gabin had to drive me there :) it was scary. i changed my mind about being enthused at the prospect of spending 2 days a week with k-6 graders!! they are mean! honestly. one tried to bite dany, then me. a teacher thwarted his efforts, but it was still unnerving. we didn't go to any classes. we ran around outside with the kids as they prepared for a sports day they are having on the 10th. all the exchange students have to go to that too. i'll remember to wear sneakers that time. sandles just don't cut it. they let us rest for about 10 minutes in the library. i passed right out on the couch, i was sooo groggy from this head cold!the library is really a comfortable atmosphere, and the books are right at my reading level for korean, maybe a little to advanced even, haha! but hey i'll get the hang of this eventually! the elementary is huge! it has 3 floors. they are really big and have many class rooms. there is like an entertainment rooom on the 3rd floor, and it has a museum type set up. it is really interesting. kim gabain went to take a closer look at one of the items and nailed her head on the glass, and it really wasn't that funny but oh my god, i could not stop cracking up. everytime i looked at her i started laughing again! after i got myself composed julian or emilio and dany would look at me and we'd all crack up again. i laugh about it now, even as i'm writing this. kim didn't have the slightest idea what that was all about. then today at my house i went to throw something away and ran right into a sliding glass door seperating me from the pantry. i never even knew that was there before! they really need to warn me about stuff like that. me and ji-eun had a good laugh about that.

on a more mature note.....class on tuesday was a little better, we played pictionary. i tried to figure out where they were with vocabulary, but it didn't help me much. we spent longer explaining the game to the class than we did actually playing it i think. they can't really make sentences yet, so they're right inbetween learning simple words and forming sentences. that doesnt make it easy for me, i'm really not cut out to teach english. i dont know any of the terms or crap like that, my english is poor, so what ever i teach them isn't going to be exact anyways. but we'll see how things go. today i made them do a skit like they are at a restaurant, one person is the waiter, the others order food. we did that sort of thing in my german class. i'd like to get intouch wtih my old german teacher, and have her give me some advice on that sort of thing. and maybe refresh my memory in german. i'd like to contiune learning german but obvously they don't teach that here.

WELL I'M off to badmitten, at 9 at night, i know weird huh? well more later!

I'm lost but I'm hopefull baby and what it all comes down to is that everything is gonna be just fine fine fine
Mood:  irritated
i'm so tired but i'm gonna write a little bit anyways. on friday bum lee won greeted me with a little gift. its a korean style key chain its sooo cool, that girl is sooo sweet!! mi-jung was back in school too! yay! i missed her so much! she had been out of school for a few days cuz her grampa died.... :( *tear* and school just isnt teh same with out her. she is so lively, it was like, everything was so much quiter! but thankfully shes back and in good spirits. :D

we've been having testes in school every day on teh vocab, but yes rose is right, (like usual) that we need more vocab, more of a challenge, just learning random words won't help us very much. and mrs kim doesnt let us laeve our host homes to hang out with the students unless it is something she has planned. other than that we are expected to stay in our homes and study, study, study! oh please, we only have 20 words to memorize, we could be learning so much more if we got out into the community and communicated with the people! that's what rotary tells us to do, "don't pen yourself in at home, get out and learn about the culture," but korea has never had exchange students before, so they have no idea what they are suppose to do and what methods are most beneficial. we only get sunday, and half of saturdday off, and it is unhealthy to make us stay at home to study 20 simple vocab words. she is redicluous. i am getting really frustrated with her whole system. she has final say over wether or not we are rested enough to go out with our friends. She is overprotective to the maximum, and it's really irritating!!! like tonight, i think i'll get into that later, i could go on forever bitching about her, but i dont want to waste my time right now. i'll just fume over it on my own time.

saturday was confusing cuz i thought i was going to julians house, but julian was going to ri's house, and my host sis had gone to seoul for something so she wasnt around to tell me where to go. the whole bus thing scares me. the bus that they usually take is on strike! such an inconvience. i ended up going back to my apartment, cuz i was unable to make plans on my own. its so hard to do, it involves going through so many channels, and i dont speak enough koren explain it to my host mom or anyone elsees host parents. i rely on the korean students and my host mom to make plans and such. but i wanna make my own plans, err!

(sorry... i'm really tired, so i'm gonna complain a lot :-P)

after i got home and all settled in ri called to say i should go to her house. its like a 20 minute bus ride to bien. we went to the beach, (it was a really small beach, but it had a beautiful selection of shells and rocks.) the walk wasnt very long, bang went with us. he's so innocent its hilious. his friend went with us, and seo-jeong, me, rose, ri, julian, hee-sung (he's mine i claim him!!) hahaha. i collected some seashells before the tide was in. they're so pretty, i hope i can bring them back to maine with out them getting broken. i don't know how i'll accomplish that one. we didn't stay at the beach long. i could have stayed there all day just collecting seashells. later me and rose went on a chocolate run, and now we are proud joint owners of a box of frosted flakes! woo! it was a lot of fun, mostly hanging out wtih rose, and ri and seojeong. they made ramen noodles but they were so spicy! i was the only one that thougth they were spicy, but damn my mouth was on fire, and it didnt even slighty bother anyone else. *breathes fire* yeow!

today i slept until 10. it was so nice! i kept having dreams about people back home in the US and i didn't wanna wake up at all. but at 10:15 oma came in and told me it was time for breakfast. uhhh!
we went to ji-eun's grams house, its near dong-gang middle school but its like an old fashion farm. i love it, its so korean. we ate grapes and talked. i didn't do very much talking of course, cuz it was all in korea. but her gram said i was very pretty. i was so flattered. :) we stayed for like an hour, just talking eating grapes and drinking coffee on their porch. i had to catch a bus at 2 with the rest of the crew to the beach. the bus was pretty expensive cuz the normal bus is stil on strike!everyone met at the seocheon bus stop, which conveniently happens to be like 2 minutes from my apartment!

julian gave me some 30 spf sun block, which is excellent cuz i am soooo tired of getting sunburned. everyday it gets a little worse! it comes with the territory of having red hair i guess. the beach was fun. dany came with us, which made things that much more exciting! she didnt go in the water though. it was prety much me rose julian and emilio that went in the water. hee-sung did too, and started a mudd fight which sucked cuz i was wearing a white bathingsuit! lil bastard.on the way back from the beach, everyone noticed something down about rose. she had been really quite all day, and i got to talk to her about it. that was nice, i feel for her. rose is great. but we almost got hit by a huge truck while having this heart to heart talk. he didnt even try to avoid us. i swear he was only inches away from me.

rose got really sick, no one knows what its from yet, but getting off the bus at seocheon she stumbled and was so dizzy she almost fainted. they helped her walk to a restuarant. she didnt get any better and before we went to the noraebang mrs kim showed up and thats when we got our lecture. julians parents came too, and mrs kim took rose away, i think they went to the hospital. hopefully. julians mom is such a wonderful woman. i love her!! she took us the the noraebang (i have no idea how they spell it!) but its karaoke (?) cant spell taht either! wow i'm on a roll tonight...

well school tomorrow, and i have to study some stupid vocab. i'll work on sentence structure too while i'm at it. haha or maybe not, i'm pooched. later

-lori-

cheese puddle of wombat
Mood:  vegas lucky
Now Playing: 80's mix
yesterday was the welcoming ceremony. it was so much less than excitng. actually it was closer to traumatizing It was roasting the the gym and i hd to wear my blazer and jeans! and then make a speach. that went alright, but i thought i would pass out from the heat. you can only imagine how red my face must have been. but it's over and i'm on to new and better things.

dany is getting along here with us so well! me and rose took her shopping the other day. we were only in seocheon so there werent many good places to go shopping. we found a nice shop and each bought a skirt. rose's and my skirt are excatly alike and dany bought a skirt too. we all wore our skirts today and it was totally unplanned. we are good! we're so on the same level all the time! except when rose is breezing by all of us in korean class. haha that is so annoying!

we didn't have any normal clases today, or on tuesday for that matter, because next week every tuesday and thursday we will be going to an elementary school to learn wth the kids there. how cool is that! i always wanted to go back to emelentary school. oh how i'v missed nap time!! haha! instead of going to class we had an all day interview with a girl from seoul who is with a big name news paper or something like that! it was really fun, i liked her a lot. rose did most of that talking, like usual!!! haha. then we went to the store across the street and the news woman bought us ice creams. she was pretty young but she spoke excellent english. she took a lot of pictures which were the most fun. me dany and rose all love to get our pictures taken. **cuz we so cute** :) the interviewer said she would send us each a copy of the enws paper when it comes out in a few weeks. there was a picture of all of us in the news paper a few days ago too. kim sonsangnim showed it to us online. its so cool!! we're celebrities!! i always knew i was bound for stardom....hah! (NOT)

today after school julian came over, which was a nice change of scenery cuz it's usually extremely boring after shcool. he showed me some things for guitar, and then ye-il and yea-min came over. i wasn't expecting them, so that was pretty cool. they stayed till they had to go to the academy at 7. julian showed me the video and song the dingdong song! so i finally heard it! it's sooo funny! the koreans love it, but they don't understand what a tra-la-la is or a ding-dong, and its so hilarious explaining it to them. sooooo cute and innocent! :)

all for now, i'll try and post some of my newwest pics really soon, like as soon as i figure outhow to get them off the camera! that might take a while...


-lori-