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-

these lines of lightning mean we're never alone
Mood:  cool
it's saturday. horray!!! half day of school. i think that's more productful than getting the whole day off, because i get up early enough and still get to see my "friends" but classes are all easier.

dany was suppose to come over after school, but we both forgot. which was dumb cuz we had been talking about hanging out earlier. oops. jieuns spanish teacher went back to columbia so dany is going to teach us spanish instead. that's a good deal since she comes over every weekned, and doesnt have to be trapped in huzgies house, where she is bored to death.

i brought 2 scarves to korea as lil gifts for my familys or what ever, and i gave one to jieun and one to dany. i was iffy about giving dany one since after this year is over she will be back in mexico and won't really need a scarf, but she promised she'd wear it all the time, even in mexico, 'EVEN IN CANCUN' haha i can amost see that happening too.

today after school me and jieun went shopping in seocheon, and later went out to eat at the tower restuarant where the floor moves. its a nice restaurant and the waiters always try and speak english to me and bow and stuff. it was my parents anniversary, so we always go there on special occasions.




hmmmm...


i miss my family. korean families just aren't close like i was with my family. i love my korean family, but like we are friendly, not family. its lacking something, to me anyways. here i have to use the polite forms when addressing my family, and bow when they come home and stuff.

that's depressing, won't press that subject any further,

gotta get to studying... how cool am i right?

leave a comment or i'll stop writing in this. seriously.

the land of the free and the home of the brave
Mood:  blue
bush, for another 4 years. this is bad. Not that Kerry was a much better option, but he was better than bush. nader for president! too bad that will never happen.

it was so close, SO CLOSE. I stayed up until 12:30 watching the election. nothing changed so I went to bed, still not knowing. after breakfast we turned the tv on to cnn and there was gb: proudly making his speech about how humbled he was to be trusted for another 4 years. it was depressing. then outside our door was the news paper, gwb great big front cover. *stomp*


besides the election, not much exciting has been going on. next week we have finals. monday is english art and gym. tuesday is math, social studies and engineering. wednesday is korean ethnics and music. korean and english are the hardest. we have to learn 30 korean sentences for mondays english class, and memorize 4 pages worth of conversations for korean class. taht teacher is insane, honestly. everything else i'll do ok in, or at least it wont matter too much if i don't.

tuesday a dentist went to the elementary and set up to show the kids what beign a dentist is like or something. but he requested to look at the exchange students teeth, who knows why. weirdo. dany first, zzzzzzsssssssphhhhhhhhhhh....ok you're excellent. then me. zzzzzzzzzsssssssssssphhhhhh zzzzzzzzzzphhhhh ssssssssttttttttttttfffffffff. oh no, oh my....*frown* then i'm done. "whats wrong? why?" and him- you have 10 cavities, i should "cure" 4 of them right now. I totally spazzed out on him, like no you are a bad dentist, there's nothing wrong with my teeth don't ever talk to me again. i realized i sounded alot like tracy when me an her get into fights. crazy. i flipped out on the nurse who tried to tell me he knew what he was doing and i should listin to him. that got me all flustered. 10 cavities my ass. that's outrageous.

wednesday I didn't go to school. there was nothing to do, but at least I got to sleep in. then I talked to friends and family on the computer, and studied some more. that felt like the longest day ever. me and mom went jogging later, and the fresh air made me feel much better.

-lori-

let the rain fall down and wake my dreams let it wash away my sanity
Mood:  loud
IT IS FINALLY RAINING. IT HASNT RAINED HERE FOR A MONTH OR MORE. really i love the sun but the rain is so rare, i appreciate it more. ti was cool today, but not too bad. an a little windy. never seems to be windy here either

rice fieldds: after the rice is um...picked? ( they have big machines like for corn maybe that seperate the rice from the stalks and leave the stalks laying there.) then the stalks slowly...field by field.... are bundled into little squares, and eventually rolled into large hay rolls. similar to the corn fields in maine. the rice is dried on huge matts along the road, and the old women are constantly there raking them. they do teh same thing with chili peppers too. except they don't rake them. I'm sure they are thankful for the lack of wind right now.

lorenza and ji-eun the fishies died. soo sad!! as a fish, i didn't last very long. those were dany's fish. but my host mom found a place for my fishies jack and jimmy, and they have an air filter and everything, so they are ok!!! they will live!

in the us and in belgium too i gathered, everyone's set their clocks back. but here, no one has, not at my house, not in shcool. so i guess daylight savings time isnt international. korea isnt interested in preserving daylight or something. its only for those super recylce crazy countries. that messes meup and it is harder to make connections with people at home because now i'm 14 hours ahead. that's alot.

all for now

lorenza

presidential elections? I never get any of that news here, but i can only imagine....

i think its a lose lose situation either way....good luck clawing your way outta this one usa,

happy halloween!
Mood:  spacey
it's halloween in the US ut here they don't celebrate it so it was just another sunday.

this weekend felt like it took forever to get here. then finally it was saturday! we didn't have elementary school classes at all this week, which made things better.

a new spa/bath opened behind julians house the other day. he and emilio went to check it out and had a good time so that gave my mom the genius plan to take me and jieun and some friends to a spa. we went to one a little ways from seocheon but it was a lot nicer than the one next to julians house.

things were so hectic, the weekend was probably more stressful than the school week was. but i still had a great time. we were suppose to go out to eat before going to the spa, but instead we went to the noraebang for an hour. at 6:35 me dany and jieun met up with emilio julian chongho heesung hugan mijeong lee-jieun and one of jieuns friends from a different school at the spa. it was really nice, we got a change of clothes and a locker to put our things in and had free run of the place. there were 3 floors, one had the hot and cold rooms, 2nd had the sleeping room and dining room, and 3rd had the exercise room. there were some computers we could use too on the 2nd and 3rd floors. it was a relaxing place but you had to be quiet a lot and that was hard to do. Rose was going to go with us, but i think she thougth she had to bring a bathing suit and wouldnt be able to go to her house to get one and come back. but that wasn't the case, and i feel bad she missed out, she would have loved it. next time we go we'll bring her for sure.

there were 2 hot rooms and they were more like ovens, in their shape and function, that like the sauna's i've seen. one room was mildly hot, and had salt beds and stone beds for people to lay on. then the other hot room was like hell. it was hot...really. across from the really hot room was the cold room. it had pipes all along the walls that made ice and the room was really cold. so we'd go from room to room it's like getting out of a hot tub and jumping in the cold pool. yah like that. we stayed the night there but we didn't go to bed until 2 in the morning. we met a lot of nice people there, it's surprising how many teenagers go to spas here. at 4 dany woke me up, she couldnt sleep, i was like wtf....it's 4 in the morning. that was crazy. there were so many people that stayed the night too.

today we left the spa at 10. we visited gunsan when jieun had spanish and shopped there. i got a nice warm fluffy green winter jacket. we went to a very very small amusement park right outside of gunsan after shopping. they only had like 3 good rides, and some kiddy rides, but lots of other things to do. the first ride lasted forever and the guy running it apparently was saying some really nasty things about me and dany cuz we didn't understand. the second ride was better. then for 1,000 won we could fish for for these really cute fishies with a paper net. i have a black one with really big eyes and a white and gold one. i call them jack and jimmy :) dany got 2 and named them lorenza and jieun. im special (lorenza is my spanish name) we dont have any way to filter their water, and they dont seem very happy here, i dont know if they will live very long. :( the black one likes to swim upside down...i dont htink that's a good sign.

that was my weekend.

lori

oh my yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah
Mood:  chillin'
yesterday i went to danys house after school and stayed the night there. i was surpresed my mom let me stay on a school night, but it's ok. we walked to dany's house, cuz we "needed the exercise," but we didnt really do any jogging. its hard to jog with backpacks on anyways. chungwan and chongsu walked us home, which was really really nice. they live between donggang and huzgies house, but walked us all the way to huzgies anyways. they dont speak any english but we taught them the te queremos ~~ te quereoms, and wtf, and *slurp* nothing dirrrrty!! we went jogging arund the village later.

korean towns and houses: there are rarely houses standing alone in korea. there are the apartments in cities that go sky high, and then outside of the cities there are "villages" with farm houses and barns. a paved road winds around all these houses, in no specific order, and the road drops off into rice fields on both sides. it's only wide enough for one car too. so if you see another vehicle on the rode you're on, one or the other of you has to reverse (whichh is really scary!) so the other can get by. the houses in the villages are pretty close together, most with high walls and some sort of garden. this is where the original korean houses are. i love the design of these buildings.

dany lives at the end of the village road. it's a long haul to the end of the road in the morning to catch the bus. and they have to do it every day! i'm glad i'm spoiled and get driven to school every day, not having to walk to a bus stop.

buses and korean driving: korean driving is insane in the first place, but it seems to be perfectly acceptable for buses to pass other cars at any time, no matter what is coming, or on a corner when they dont even know if someone is coming that way. buses drive very fast too. since they are big they pretty much own the highway. it's worst when buses and big dumptruck like trucks get into power stuggles over the road. the bus will pass a car, and see a dumptruck, so it will speed up to get around the car faster, it's like im in a game of chicken. not like being in a car is any safer. every one seems to be in such a hurry. i've almost been hit twice walking in seocheon, in cross walks!! this isnt including the time my host mom ran over my heel.

me and dany stayed up talking until 11, then when i woke up at 6:30 i saw the door, right where my door is in my host famis house and her desk, same spot my desk is, but her clock is ona different wall, so i immedietly thought, shit someone took my clock! then i remebered i was danys house, and things went back to normal.

yesterday the korean teacher (the really slow one) got upset about the condition of the nurses station cuz everyone had been in there. he was really relly pissed so she broght chungku and fransisco up infront of the class to like make examples of them. it was scary, like i was shaking i was so scared. fransisco first, he hit him, twice, right in the face really really hard. fransisco was ok, but you could tell it hurt really bad, then when he hit chunku he gave him a bloody nose. then they had to kneel donw, and chungku, just letting the blood run everywheres, cuz he couldnt move, it was so humiliating. it was like an hour long lecture on that, and i'd never seen anything like that before. teachers aren't allowed to hit kids in the us. i'm really frightened by the korean teacher now.

so that's all the news here. today is my mommy in miguk's birthday!! happy birthday!!!! i looove youuu!!!!!!!!! hope she had a good day

lori

taek gogi, kae gogi and 'pelican fried chicken?!'
Mood:  happy
today has been so great. it just seems like everything has fallen right into place and has been almost 100% worry free!! i love it when that happens. first, we werent late to school, but i forgot it was tuesday so i dmissed my bus to the elementary and hung out at the midd school until one of the teachers could bring me. they didnt care its only like a 5 minute drive, and i got to spend tme with yeamin and yealim.

when I got to the elementary everyone was in the library on the computers. we didn't have any classes that day I dont know why, but it was wonderful. The entire time we were there we were on the internet in the library. i finally caught up on all the emails i've been meaning to write! horray for me! and also, no mean scary 5th grade teacher at all!!! thta made me really happy! the nurse is so cool too. she has a daughter in the kindergarten, but no husband. here that is soo scandelous. so ithink that is really awesome! congratulations for her, but it kind of makes me wonder. seh is such a sweetheart too.

back to donggang for lunch, and some bonding time with the students. sort of. we had english classes and then a free class to work on a project that i didnt do but helped someone do.

0e
i skipped last block english class. i was on my way there and me and yeil got into a war with these bouncy fruits that smell really good....then me dany and the boys from the 3-1 class hung out in the nurses office, because no one ever goes there. everytime someone knocked on the door we'd all jump out the window!! bail out! i checked into the english class once but no one was doing anything people were not even in class, so i went back to the nurses station. me and dany were corrupting sambien like do you love your girlfrined? why are you in here then? do you really love your girlfriend? haha they are so fun. i couldnt find yeamin to get my sandles back so i ended up wearing his home...then my host mom almost ran over my heel today when we were dropping off some people. she ran over one sandle so i couldnt move, and got my heel but just a little, took off a few layers of skin and hurt really bad. i didnt know whether to cry or laugh. it was a funny sight...im sure. my mom is such a bad driver! that confirms it.

when i got home i made some more layouts in my mini scrapbook thing. i like it. i used the flowers from school left over from the anniversary celebration. i looks cool but i dont think it will age well. we'll see. ji-eun had to go to yoga, but i chatted with people on tachy more, i love that soo much! i only talk to a few people and can only say a few things, but it is great fun anyways! i learn something new each time!

yoga was fun, and relaxing, and after jieun told her dad about me wanting to try kae gogi (dog meat) it's illegal in the usa so i have to try it! anyways he said they would get me some on the weekend, and bought me chicken after i helped jae-un with his homework. i love chicken. it was soo good!!! "your spanish really turns me on..but then again, so does chicken!" those were good times.

when i got home a package from cayla was waiting for me on my desk. it only took 6 days to get here. that is amazing, since the eye liner mom sent me took 2 months...no joke. cayla sent me a letter, some pictures i have taped to my wall, and a collage that is also taped to my wall. one pic is of just jimmy and jack. jieun nabbed it and me hey wait wait wait! and her nooo i looooooove jimmy!! haha she really does too! shes like he looks like hes really kind and funny. i hope i can bring her back so she can meet him. that would be nice.

ohh i have friends that love me!!! ^_^ - the koreans have gotten me into making the little squinty eyed smilies. soo cute!!

so i had to update, cuz i've had such a good day, n i dont want tomorrow to ruin it.

my dad,with his only english quote he's leearned from those annoying english tapes, "early to bed early to rise makes a mad healthy" he says it all the time. and jieun, "early to bed early to rise makes a man healthy, f*** you. .. f*** you saying that is not true! I hate it!" and she gives the middle finger to no body in general. haha i swear i didnt corrupt her, she must have been like this before i got ahold of her. :D i was like...yah..go jieun!! i really really hate that saying too. shes loads of fun. i think me being here has really improved her grasp on the english language. it is way way better than it was when i first got here. i dont have to talk slow to her either, or anything.

but i should get to bed now, NOT because my host dad said to, but because I want to...yah thats how it is! haha

later
-lori-

te queremos lori te queremos
Mood:  hug me
i've had a really great weekend! it started with saturday being a half day. we didnt have any classes because we had to sit through a really boring presentation by all these important people, because it was the schools 55th anniversary. we didn't get to eat any of the cake either. but it was alright, after school me and dany went to yea-lims house and ate pizza and ice cream...interesting mix, it was yummy! ther was a lil bit of confusion about if i was staying the night or not. my fam had plans for me i didn't know about and it put alitle friction between yealims family and my family. but they got over it. i did end up staying the night. we watched legally blonde in english. the blondeness of it made me miss my heather a lot. she's haveing a shitty week i think, he email to me sounded pretty down. i feel bad i can't be there to help her out. yeil and yeamin came back and we all went to hang out in the church. their dad is a minister, so they have a church next to their house. both boys want to be ministers. hmmm idno...but yah... that was fun and we had a good time. i really like yealims family. at 8 there was a service type thing for teenagers, 4 other people went besides me yeamin yeil yealim and dany. one didn't show up until 9 after the service was over and we were all just chilling, playing koran games. he had been drinking too, which is comical to me, that he shows up for a bible thing drunk. hahaha, yah that's the way to go. mostly we sang christian songs in korean. me and dany struggled to keep up, yealim played piano, and yeil did the service. his dad was there, but didn't really do anything. his dad wasn't there when boy #4 showed up drunk.that was entertaining as ever. at 10 they left, and we went back to the house, where we stayed up until almost 1 talking. but then we had to get up at 8 for breakfast. they didn't have church until 10:30, but my family was picking me up for a festival thing at 10. they brought me to the festival, then asked if dany wanted to go too. well i hadn't asked her cuz they usually don't like me inviting people with out asking. but they called and asked if she wanted to go too. we went back, then, the pick her up. the festivals main event was the the band which was really good. ri's mom played in it, and it was modern korean songs i liked. that didn't start until noon though. me and dany scoped out the situation, and hung out with jieun. it was an unuaually warm day and i was sunburning like crazy, so after lunch we moved our cardboard to one of the tents where a banner over the door way provided us with some shade. we could see the band playing from underneith it, and keep an eye on blue wind pants too. people stared at us a lot and some came up and said oh i recognize you from tv. i was like yah! im famous! haha except a lot of them called me rose...but still. then someone came up and started taking pictures of us, and others started too. it was cool, like we werent doing anything, just sleeping, and everyone was fascinated with us. i loved the attention, dany wasn't really phased by it, but i know she enjoys it too! we left to go to emilio's house at 2, where everyone was meeting up. chongu emilio yealim yeil yeamin ri julian seojong and some of chongu's cousins were al there. the camera men were too; they're awesome. rose didn't go because she had things to do at home ri said. we bought pizza for supper, and stayed at emilio's house for a long time. that was a lot of fun, pig piles, yea-min "you are heavy" me- "what?!?!?that's it, i dont love you any more!!" yeamin- no uh i said you are happy" yah yah yah, and dany, "everyone just stop shouting. " what? dany telling someone else to be queit? that's hilarious! we are ALWAYS telling dany to stop shouting. then ye-il and chongu pushing me and ji-eun around in the wheel barrow, 'no no no not into the rice fields ahhhhh hey, who took my shoes? lots of good times. then dany yeil yeamin and yealim had to leave, so it was queiter after that. ji-eun amde me a name on tachy a korean chat network. that's fun now i can talk to all the koreans!!

today i slept in until 8:30 which was late to me! rose took a bus to seocheon and i met up with her at 10:40 at cna. she wanted to get her ears pierced too. i made the marks for the holes, but one side is more crowded than the other, i feel reallyrelly bad.!!! she got her bottom ears redone and then a second hole,. the guys shop owner did it, but the girl did it for me. she is better i think. rose isnt happy with it, and might take it out. then we walked back to my house until 3, just talking and drinking coffee. we walked to the bus stop at 3, it's quite a ways, but i love walking in the city. is relaxing. i am still and never will be use to all the staring and stuff. koreans kind of make me nervous, cuz i dont know what they are saying, and i know everyone is gawking at me. they're hard to read too. i wasnt this nervous when i first got here. but the more i get to know the korean culture, the more timid i am around them. who knows why. hope it doesnt effect me wen i get back to Usa. i'm planning on returning on june 2nd or 3rd. i switch families in february. i will 4 months with my new family, that's enough i think.
we didn't have school today because it was teh schools 55 anniversary so taht's calls for celebration i guess. its' a holiday! like teachers workshop...haha. but tomorrow i have school, and elementry school, poopy....!!!

so it off to bed for me, good night

my clock with the funny tick finally pooped out on me
Mood:  accident prone
the clock in my room, it looks like a lifesaver. mabye a butterscotch life saver, but i'm sure it wasn't meant to look like a life saver. it had a different tick. at the top it would swing 5 seconds in one swipe, then at the 6 it would take 10 seconds for 5 ticks. last night at 7:45, it finally crapped out on me. i think that's about the time i went to bed too. i started reading at 7 and didn't last too long. when i woke up this morining i thougth, he cuz it's festival we must not have to wake up until 8! so i went back to sleep. but actually, it was only 7 when i woke up, and i ended up sleeping in too much, i was really late and having to rush through a shower, cram breakfast in and still get jay-un to his midd. school on time. ohhh soooory! we were really only 5 minutes late. so it wasnt a big deal. :) but i just now replaced the batteries in my clock. the funny tick is still there, but a little less now. i feel like i've stolen some of it's character. maybe i should have left it at 7:45. i kind of feel bad now. hmmm

anyways, today was the festival. it was great. yesterday all of donggang middleschool spent preparing. we were told a lot of people were going to be there because they sent out like amillion fliers. ( i was sorely dissapointed that only parents showed up.) it was a laid back day, like yesterday. everyone made scarecrows that looked kind of funny and out of place all over the middleschool. and the students wrote poems taht i couldnt understand and laminated them and hung them by string from their scare crow. i put mine or ri's. they carved pumpkins too. i was helping seojong gut her pumpkin and we were just taking hand fulls out and dumpig it on the desks and all of a sudden these worms started JUMPING out of the goo all over the place. there was millions of them. of course we started screaming and running around until one of the boys finished cleaning the pumpkin :) that was fun, in a sort of disgusting way.

2 days ago i got my ears pierced! i'm so happy! i love it! it's so cute! they're all lime green stones, 3 on the bottom of my left year, and 3 on the bottom of my right with one at the top. it's so cute. i had to hide it from the teachers yesterday, but today since it was the festival, they didnt care. everyone, *gasp* ohhhh yepo yepo (beautiful) appoe?? (did it hurt?) nahhhh well it burned after she did the last one on my left ear, i think she did it wrong cuz she had to adjust the needle half way through, and it throbbed a little. but the others are fine. i hope they dont get infected. that would bite. mom says she's still trying to discourage tracy from piercing her tounge.

should tracy pierce her tounge?

yes

or no?

before the festival started at 9:30, i checked my email even though i PROMISED myself i would cut down on all the writing home. but i never do. I got an email from cayla, and said scott grant was in a pretty messy car accident. the details gave me shivers. someone just shouldn't have been able to live though something that did THAT MUCH damage to his vehical. so amazing. glad he's doing ok though! so scary! I was still trying to find time to write a lengthy messege to her other really sweet emial.

For the first of the festival the groups 1)mexico 2)usa 3)belgium 4)korea all did our skits thing. mexico did their traditional dance with the fancy dress, and tap dance type routine. then us did a swing type thing to elvis's hound dog. belgium i think did the best, with their head sholders knees and toes, in french, and then the smurf dance. that was hilarious! smurfs are cool. korea did samuloni. that's fun to watch cuz the people get sooo into it! they swing their heads and sway to the rythem it's so fascinating. no one was there at all for that performance. it was sad. i guess the invite wasnt until the night performances. o well. we got to spray paint our mural we drew yesterday. us did the statue of liberty. it came out looking somewhat like her, with a flag in the back ground, and some fireworks, it was ok, wasnt' a big deal. the exchange students parents were there. that was it for guests. all the students had made paper air planes yesterday and wrote a wish on them for today we went to the top of the hill over the soccer sand pit and attempted to fly them off. like sending your wish out to sea or something. but the wind was blowing so they all came back on us. that's gotta be sayign something about what's gonna happen to their wishes. :?

i finally sent out my package home, it was 17,000 won, thats about 15$ and it was not too heavy a package. but it was ok, i think my fami might pitch in for it. rotary paid us again, so im not as desperate for cash as i was after they made us fork out 70% of our last stipend for the visa!

that was sort of random, i guess back to the festival news. it was so fun, it felt like autumn, as if it was suppose to be halloween. and all the scarecrows and pumpkins with candles in them, felt like the us. korea doesnt celebrate halloween really. i might get some candy and hadn it out to all the thrid graders for the saturday before halloween. that would be kind of american. the air all around today reminded me of last halloween at the haunted forest. that was really fun, hanging out with all my friends, freezing cold, and it smelled like camp fire, with is what donggang smelled like for who knows what reason. maybe all the candles in the pumpkins did it, but anyways, it was like...woah, i sort of miss that. i wonder if they are going to do that this year. prolly not, someone told me that place went out of business? bummer.

each group had to make a type of food native to that country. mexico did tacos but they were really messed up tacos. they were in a rice type soft shell wtih lettuce tomatoes and TUNA haha dany was so dissapointed. belgium made crepes, and us made hotdogs! not really made, just heated up with mustard and ketchup. it was a big hit, and really really easy.

korea of course did making kimchi. the camera men (we have another group of camera men, but i like them, and i think i'm getting better with them) all wanted to film me trying some of the kimchi. so one of the students fed me kimchi, (their big of hand feeding otehr students its sooo cute!) and they wanted to see my reaction. so my eyes filled up with tears, and my face started burning while i tried not to breathe fire as i attempted a smile and a half hearted "oh its wonderful". then i ran out, to find a water cooler, screw finding a cup! eeeeooooowwww i filled up on sweet crepes after that. someong i know i can manage. yea-lim interviewded us, since none of these camera men know very good english. actully its 2 camera men and one camera woman i recongnize as one of the first camera people who followed us around. they must be doing a series. yea-lim knows how much we hate interviews, me less than rose, but im still nto good at them. but it was short and non painful.

there wasnt much to do after that until the night time program started. i felt lost, like ok now where do i go. everyone seemed to have somthing to do, or made themselves of some use. i was just in a world of my own...ummmmmm me? hmmmm *floats around aimlessly * tar-ae taught me and dany some dances for my name by boa. its fun, like a sexy dance. haha i love it. dany said all her and her friends use to dance all the time in school. i should brign that back to the us. at least i know tracy would dance with me. for the night time show, they just randomly put the exchange studnts down for things we didnt evenknow we were doing. like the kaegari song. (the frog song) i didn't go up and do it, just julian and rose. and dany did her mexican traditional dance with the fancy dress. heesung sang and tae-ri (that means kiwi in korean what a sweet name.) and her group did some dances. i wish i had the nerve to do that sort of thing in front of an audience. but hell no. i'll get better while i'm here i'm sure. butn ot yet. bong was there. he's shaved his head, it looks different. i almost didn't recognize him! yea-min and ye-il did a dance to a famous pop song. that was hot. really, they are good dancers. me and tracy could do something like that if we got our acts together. then yea-min a a few of his friends played guitar for a few songs. that was great. THEN and this was the best part. julian had to do a "fashion show" where he dressed up as a girl. he found 3 other guys to do ti with him. chongo, fransisco (his spanish name, i ALWAYS forget his korean name, im bad) and ye-il. OMG OMG OMG OMG IT WAS SOO ADORABLE. they had some of the girls shrits on and skirts and wigs and huge stuffed boobs! i think chongo looked the best as a girl, he has nice legs. :) fransisco and chonge shaved their legs too, im like why!??! mula! julian had my pink sweatshirt on, very sexy. julian was probably the homliest girl though, sorry julian! they got onstage and EVERYONE went crazy. they did their skit thing and just messed around, then they started throwing articles of clothing into the audience. ''ohh there goes my sweatshirt!!!waiiiit....shit. i gotta get tha back! ''but someoen retured it after the show. i almost lost my voice screaming so much. dany did, hope that is back by tomorrow. haha

that was really all of the exciting parts about today. i'l try and get some pictures of the show from other people. my cam is battery dead and i havent hd the time to replace tehm. so i missed out on an oppertunity of a life time to get pics of the performances.the art teacher prolly ahs them though. i'll check the schools web page ina few days.

umm bean is doing good. rose is over her bronchitis for the most part. YAY!! finally right?! wow that was insane there, i thought she might have to go home. then what would i do!? i'd be lost, really!!! ji-eun is doing good. still no word from her mom whether or not she is going to be allowed to come back and stay for a little bit with me in june. she needs to make up her mind, cuz it's a long process. i got the contact stuff to make reservations home but i was hoping mom would write to them with my recomendations. I want to be home byt june 3rd at the latest, cuz it would mean a lot to me to see cayla n katie graduate. :) 2 of my closest friends, i think it would mean a lot to them too. tht would be cool.

so now i'm totally out of things to say. and im tired. school tomorrow, saturday, but still only a half day.

im making progress i can tell....

always lori

sshibal!
Mood:  caffeinated
i'm not even going to tell you what that means. but it's a great saying anyways!

man, my sister is such a bad ass. I love her. She's not like anyone elses host siblings! nope! A few days ago she got her ears pierced! such a rebel! lol i love it, but her mom and dad would kill her if they found out! so we couldtn tell anyone. then today i think the art teacher saw them and made her take them out. that was too bad, it was soo cute!! cna does really really cheap ear piercings! i'm going to get a few more holes in each ear, maybe tonight. we tried going after yoga last night but it was closed. a lot of the stores are still open until 11 at night, it's great, the store next door the the apartment is always open, i think. and people are still up and trucking around at 10 at night. sometimes ji-eun will come in and ask if i want to go to the store with her, totally unexpectedly, and i'm like...its 10:30..... and her... its ok! yoga doesn't get over until 10, and my mom was perfectly fine with going right then to get my ears pierced. she didn't find out that ji-eun had hers pierced but i guess it doesnt matter now either.
and today i was waiting for kim gabin, and i see ji-eun at the other end of the hallways get sent out of class, with j'i-eun, (kim gabins daughter) and get the bamboo stick treatment. yes ji-eun, that's my girl. haha. then 5 seconds later mi-jong gets sent out too.

I taught ji-eun the phrase "what the f***" actually me and dany, i wouldnt wanna take all the credit for such an accomplishment :) Hey i'm here to expand her english vocab :) here no one knows what it means or if they do it doesnt have the same effect it does on native english speakers, because they arent use to hearing it. so the exchange students swear openly and teachers seem totally unphased by it. ji-eun, in the middle of mc.donalds asks her mom in korean if she knew what what the F*** ment. "--- --- what the f***?" and her mom...."hmmmm what the f***?" and she repeats it and thinks about it for a few minutes. i was crackin up soo bad! ji-eun is so fun. mom realy wants her to be able to come back and visit for like amonth or so when i get back. that would be so awesome!!it's a long process though, we're till looking into it.

today we visited a middle school that was doing the same sort of fextiveal thing we are doin the 24. ti was such a bigger shcool and they teach german japanese french spanish and english. sooo awesome!!! everyone, and it's a school of 800 kids, was fascinated by us. mostly julian, an girls were literally falling over eachother to talk to him. the guys are always shy no matter what shcool, but we did have a pretty impressive crowd around us too. me and dany went walking around, and the whole time had a huge mob of people around us. they loved us, seriously!! WHY DIDNT WE GO THERE INSTEAD OF DONGGANG!!! oh my it would have been so great! sooo greawt!! but j park didnt want us going to a city becauses its too rough. i'm like no no rough environments are good! haha i love it there, and all the people, and we were celebrities! it was the best! they are more drawn to the blonds than they were to me dany and emilio. but i get over it. i had my share of admirers. when we first walked into the auditorium we all got a huge applause! wow! and people constantly taking pictures. at first i didnt wanna go i wanted to sleep, but i'm so glad i went now. i hope we go to a highschool in a city. emilio and julian are trying to arrange for us to go to seoul, and rose wants to go to busan. i'd rather go to busan cuz it's not as over run with foreigners, and i gotta admit i like being treated like a celebrity.

well we dont have yoga today, so i'm goig for a jog with my mom in a few minutes. yay. also every sunday i'm going to start taking spanish classes with ji-eun. I'm the only exchange student who doesnt know at least 2 languages fluiently. julian french and english. emilio spanish english dany same, rose spanish english japanese, and me....english. just freakin english. i hate it. i wanna learn german and spanish and korean and japanese! lol like thats ever gonna happen. but it would be so fun! i also wanna visit mexico and german. but i dream big and accomplish little. i'm like that. i've gotten over it.

yesterday we went to the elementary but we got to spend time with the third graders. we hadnt' been with them yet. they are the best!! relaly! they are so sweet! we were taking an english class, "do you like chicken? yes i do! do you like chicken? ohhhh yes! do you like fish? no! i dont! do you like fish! no i dont!" in a sing song voice. annoying but the kids were so cute about it. they asked me all sorts of do you like this do you like that questions. we had to choose agroup to sit with for a game we played, and they like dove for our chairs to get us to sit with them. soo cute!! we also had to spend another excruciating class with the scary 5th grade teacher. but it was ok, we didnt' really do anything, nor did we learn anything, but at least he didn't expect us to teach the class, or relearn all about triangles. :)

i guess that's all. i got a few more books on learning korean. even though i cant find any free time to read them. ji-eun said she would help me but the poor girl is out straight studying herself. i wonder what they will quiz us on in december. i hope its not like the normal tests cuz im not learning any of the actual subjects. my korean is progressing slowly too. better ask kim gabin

our festival is in 4 days! i'm nervous! my class doesnt know a dance at all. we tried teaching them some simple dance moves, but they are making it difficult, they cant come up with moves on theri own, an we have to place them individually in rows like we want them to be for the show because they are incabeable of getting into rows with out clumping into circles or fighting about who stands near who. that could be embaressing. i can see us trying to set up for like 15 minutes for a song that lasts 3. damn.

we'll see, i'll update about the festival. the exchange studnets get to sing the kegari song, the frog song! yay! its cute and we have moves for it too. we learned that probably the first week we were here. it should be fun. but it involves standingup infront of a lot of people...

ok im going jogging now, later

lori