It's been one week since you looked at me, threw your arms in the air and said *your crazy*
Mood:  lucky
its been a week! i'm such a slacker! it was an uneventful week, so that should make the fact that i havent updated more acceptable. the weekend was good.

saturday i didnt go to school, even though they woke up me at 8 like they expected me to go. by 8:30 when we were suppose to leave and i was still lounging around in my pajams i think they realized i meant what i had said about staying home on saturday. its my mental health day. sat around drinking green tea and coffee, and writing or reading. not like i dont do enough of those during the week days, but it was relaxing for a saturday morning. the night before jiyoon and ji-eon and my mom had all gone out to they gymchilbang at 11 at night. i dont see the appeal of this...especially because it involves sleeping on thoe uncomfortably hot heated marble floors. nope, ill pass,and just sleep in my own bed, thanks. they got back at around 6 am on saturday morning and my littlest sister ji-eon was still expected to go to school.

i cant really remember anything i did during the week besides going to school. after that i pretty much just dragged myself home at 3, and stayed at home for the rest of the day. its a lot to take, all the korean girls screaming and bouncing around and nonstop chattering. its like being locked in a room full of bats. or maybe chittery birds. except im trying to comprehend what they are saying and understand the situations.

sometimes when my oldest sister ji-yoon gets home from the university, we go out for exercise. its just a walk around a few blocks of my house but its better than nothing, i know. she says she wants to join the health club again, but i can think of a million excuses that prevents me from going. really, im just too lazy to make it worth the 30$ a month it would cost me. its warm enough now to just go jogging at night, if the mood strikes. *which it hasnt for like 6 months...but who knows!*

nal-ssi-ga choh-a-hae. the weather is nice, it rained a few days ago, but it was warm still. i'm going to have to start wearing sunblock walking home. it even smells like spring time. i'll be getting all use to the warm weather here, where they actually have a spring, uninterrupted by freak snowstorms. then i'll get back to maine in june, and there will still be snow on the ground. hah! maine....
wednesday was warm enough that i didnt have to wear a jacket to school.woooahhh! unfortunatly...my wallet is in my jacket, and my house key is in my wallet.....so i was waiting outside for an hour for mom to come home and let me in. :) leave it to the american.

today is my little sisters birthday! that means...more cake!
class over, more later maybe

lori anne


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~now is the later i was refering to earlier~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

since ji-na didnt go to school on a sunday she had to have punishment. yah skipping school, normal-- not sunday church school stuff but they expect studets to attend regualr classes on a sunday--...oh my sister is such a rebel. :) i can almost be reasoned with about school on saturday. it could work and some schools do it in the usa. but school on sunday... is morally wrong. especially for a chrisitan school. didnt god get sunday off too? he can probaby accomplish a lot more than we can in a week, and if he's allowed to break for sunday...well i think its only fair for us to be able to too.

just a rant, because taking that to a korean school board would probably get me deported. they are that serious about their education. koreans are sooo smart. lots of people i meet brag about their sons or daughters getting into harvard or other ivy league colleges in the usa. i figure anyone who studies for 16 hours a day should be able to pass a harvard test like it was nothing. theres definitely no where in the usa that offers highschool and middleschool education like that.

saturday my host parents left for someplace over night. yay house party! no not really. but ji-eon had a friend over and ji-yoon had a friend over and her friends boyfriend. his english is really good, to everyones amazement. they are always shocked when a fellow korean is able to communicate well with me in english, like woah no one was expecting that! haha. we stayed up until 3 watching movies, talking and showing eachotehr photo albums. it was a good time.

dany and emilio were allowed to leave their school campus, ((which only happens like two times a month)) this weekend. but they were at emilios house and we didnt get together. its not easy since we live about an hour apart,and have so little free time. i dont knwo how we are going to work out the visa for dany if she doesnt haev time to do any of the paperwork required, or even have time to take the interview. :( all this stuff to do, and zero motivation. well, thats not new...i havent been motivated or inspired to do anything for a while. dont know whats up with that.
theres too much and too little going on at the same time, does that make sense to you?

on sunday ji-eun called and talked for a while. she was worried since rose had left for the usa that i was going to too. i havent talked to her, (ji-eun) since graduation so it was really nice. earlier i was expecting the call from dany and emilio, so sort of expected her to invite me over and then we'd meet up with dany and emilio. that would have been a weekend plan...like normal. but no, she had just clled to talk, which was fun too. dont know what happened to dany and emilio but they never did get around to calling :( bums.

ok, well anyways- ji-na is chickening out on getting the piercing wth me. she says this month they are doing a clothing check on all the students and they check for piercings too, so she doesnt want to have to remove it before its fully healed. but i'm pretty sure its an excuse because a-ra told her how much it hurt. thanks a-ra. haha

noh wae nae mahl shibal?? and they say im not learning korean?! ji-na taught me that, it means why are you ingorning me? but shibal is roughty translates into the F word.... people get a kick out of listining to me say it. ji-na ="lori lori say to her what i taught you." me- "noh wae nae mahl shibal?" **shreiks** :D im make my host family so proud.

also, st pattys day came and went with out any recognition. how dissapointing. they dont appreciate the irish like they should. ji-yoon was doing homework and yells, "do you knwo what today is????" me- "st patricks day!" her-"um... thrusday." well ya that too.... she had never heard of st patricks day. not that i really understand it, and i dont know who st patrick was, but i just assumed it was an international holiday. :( crap

and that is everything *that i can remember* that happened this week.

lori anne

some people call me the space cowboy
Mood:  energetic
this weekend was fun, which surprised me cuz i didnt know we had anything planned. horray for surprises

Saturday they dragged me out of bed and made me go to school. what ever happend to letting the poor little exchange student stay home for the weekends, huh???

but it was all good anyways, and they were having a performance thing by the students i had said i might be interested in going to. it was kind of early on a saturday morning to feel really interested in ANYTHING but i tried. me and ji-na were late, but since its saturday no one noticed. we dont have normal classes, and all the students, from all 3 grades were meeting in the auditorium. we brought our chairs down and fit right in. everyone was still wandering around not doing anything anyways. first there was a lot of singing, and prayers which seemed to take forever. I'm not a church goer, so maybe that is normal, but i wished they could just get to the performances part. finally they did, and everyone was standing on chairs pushing screaming and all sorts of mad ladylike things. the performances were so funny, some people did dances to korean songs...which were very unchristian, but the crowd loved it. some did skits that i didnt understand, (nods... "si si") but followed as best i could and laughed at all the appropriate times. some of ji-na's friends brought me closer to the stage and let me stand on their chairs so i can see, and ji-na let me wrap myself in her blanket because they don't believe in heating the school at all. (i do love getting all the special treatment) :)!!

ji-na told me i'd have to go up on stage and do a speech or something too.

hah
hahahaha


hah hah..
-_-
^(do i look impressed??? is this my happy face?!?!)

not unless you kill me first. i've never been good at public speeches, but in a language i dont know? with 600 people? and no preperation?? luckily..she was kidding, phew!!! after that the english teacher from the third grade, (the seniors teacher) came down and wanted me to eat lunch with them so i could prepare his students for an english contest. I'd be happy to, but couldnt taht day because I had plans with JI-na and her friends to go out and eat lunch. (dokkbokki!!!) ^-^ so maybe i will today....unsure.

me, ji-na, a-ra (who is sooo cool! & she has the nub part where your ear attaches to your head pieirced....woah... i really want to get that done some time!! maybe next time we go to dae-jeon jina said. :D:D) i-sul, and su-mok all went out to lunch together. the dokk-bokki restaurant was right across from the school, and the owner gave us an extra serving because i was with them (did i mention i love the special treatment?!?! yeah :D - ) afterwards we went to the photoshop nearby and got soem group pictures done. there were a lot of students there who had also just gotten out of school for the day, so i guess just going with your friends to get pics together is pretty common. it wasnt very expensive either, but they came out really good. the pics are on my yahoo pic site because i finally figured out i can put pics on my computer and dont have to download any software! yay for me! they are in March album, my newest one.

~~~~~later

<**>

besides going out to lunch and getting pictures done there wasnt much going on saturday. I was so exhausted for I dont know wht reason. maybe them waking me up so early on a day im suppose to be able to sleep in had something to do with it, but im not sure.

Sunday at 12:45 me and ji-na met 4 different friends at pizza hut for lunch. yummmm pizza. its just like in the usa, go figure.

AHHHHHHHHH AH AH AH AH

the phone keeeeeps ringing! and they dont just let it ring for 1 minute, or 10 rings or what not, they give the family a full 5 minutes to decide if the are home or not. my host mom came out and said DO NOT ANSWER IT, so idno who we're avoiding but i had no intention of answering it anyways. no one can understand my korean on the phone, "amodo-amgesayo." thas all i have to say, and they refuse to take no as an answer! and just keep talkin in korean, so i have to use my mad phone operating skills, like "yes this is the kim's residence but no one is available at this time to take your call at this time, so if you can understand this messege and want to leave your name and number I assure you they'll call you back at a time that is more convenient for them!thank you!"
ok what was i saying about sunday?

ahh, pizza hut. we stayed there for about 3 hours, just hanging out taking pictures, talking, and stuff. those too are on my yahoo site. koreans have a thing about giving eachother nicknames in english, like eun-youngs name was square becase she had a square face. they call eachother cow and pig and mermaid and idno, things like that. no offense taken even for the worst name, cause its all in fun. we all gave eachother nick names by colors. yon-nam was yellow and ji-na was orange, by skin color, so guess what i am! pink of course. by comparison to all the asians even when im not blushing im a "cute" shade of "pink". having white white, not tan, skin is considered beautiful (i know...very strange.) hi-ju was grey and ji-su was red.

after we left we got more pictures done at the photo shop like we did saturday with a-ra, i-sul, and su-mok. (pronounced soo-moke).
Ji-na had to go back to the library and study because thats wht koreans do on their weekends! i went home and played guitar for 4 hours, and had a relaxing weekend.

today is white day, where boys give girls candy. like v-day but then girls give boys chocolate. too bad i dont know any boys in nonsan, but its for the better im sure. the last thing i need is more candy! :) i got some from the students and teachers which was nice. koreans are insane about sharing. everything they have they share. its really sweet. that was hard to get use to when i first got here. if you eat a snack, you better eat it somehwere no one will see you.

ji-na gave me a korean name during chinese class. you cant write an english name in chinese, its got to be a chinese word. and al korean names mean something in chinese. so i have to choose between kim ji-ha or kim ji-u. i like ji-u. i wanted kim, like the family im staying with, and took the ji that is like all my sisters. so the last part of my last name is the only thing i change. kim ji-u. then i can write it in chinese.

at 3 when i was suppose to be able to leave, the english teacher came in and brought me to visit the principle. everyone says he this and he that, but really its a she, and shes a nun. its just koreans dont specify the difference when they are talking in english. she was very nice but didnt know english.that didnt surprise me. none of the teachers here so far can i've found. but they're all soo nice. it was an uncomfortable meeting though. it felt like it lasted forever with a million akward silences in it and the english teacher not bieng able to translate very well. finally they let me go, and gave me my months allowance :)

so.....
thas all the new gossip i guess


later

-lori anne-

lilredd-headedgurrl rambles on at 10:20 AM WST

Updated: Monday, 14 March 2005 4:31 PM WST

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I'll be just fine.. pretending i'm not
Mood:  blue
first I should write about how my birthday went.

it was a lot more fun than i expected! at school after lunch one of the girls brough me and ji-na, (my awesome host sister) out to baskin robbins. then we had a party for me, wth traditional rice cake and candles. (( I even got a birthday hat, so pimped i know)) it was...interesting. we had snacks and watched the "note book" which was really good, but sad...and I didn't get to finish it so i'll have to rent it with ji-na sometime. I got a 2 big poster board pieces of paper that everyone in my class, and then some, had signed with happy birthday wishes, and my home room teacher gave me a rose. it's in my room drying, and i'll be extremely protective of the roses I get in nonsan, even though theres not much of a chance they will get mutilated here. ((my host family is much more understanding about my request for privacy, and are very careful not to touch any of my things when they go in my room.))

then later my older sister ji-yoon took me to the bakery to pick out a cake. i got a mocha one, instead of chocolate, cuz my fam isnt as devoted to chocolate as i am, sadly, and i wanted everyone to enjoy it! we had a birthday party when ji-na got home from shcool and drank coffee took pictures and ate cake. ji-na gave me a present with a little letter, written in englsh (( veeery impressive! the grammer is not perfect, but its too cute!)) and also gave me soem nail polish and makeup! :-)
shes really so sweet! i wanna take them all home with me! ((which reminds me, still working on dany's visa, but dad never got back to me on that. i'll write him an email, so he doesnt put it off and then not have time before going back to work.))

also got a call from rose, singing me happy birthday. then at 8 my mom called and talked for a few minutes. it was good to talk to her. right
after I hung up the phone with her, dany and emilio called to wish me a happy birthday. yay! they sang me happy birthday in korean english and spanish and we got to chat for a lil bit. I havent heard form them since school started, and I guess its' worse than i thought. I definitely have a much better deal, and it looks like a really good thing that rose chose to go home instead of face the dorms and school in gunsan. Dany and Emilio can't even leave the school grounds. they have to study all day, don't have t.v.'s or computers, and can't call out. they had to borrow a teachers phone to call me for my birthday. they are bored to death, and I wouldnt be surprised if one of them was inspired by rose's idea, and leaves early.

-----so that was my birthday-----

on the 10th, i didn't go to school because my host family thougth I had to catch an earlier bus, and didn't wake me up for school. when i did wake up, I wasn't about to fuss about missing a day of school, (horray) so I computered before going to catch an earlier bus to seocheon. Rose met me there and we went to cna and bought some earrings and visited the people who work at cna. we use to see them a lot, and they are sooo soo nice! rose's host mom told her to buy pens for gifts when she comes home, but instead we just bought earrings instead, because they are better and we didn't have any like that. **thank you rose's mom** haha. she doesnt know yet. "30$ worth of pens?!?!?!" then we took a bus to Biin. we werent there long before the camera people showed up. they had heard about rose leaving and wanted to interview her and her host mom before then. the first thing they say when they see us -to me: "woah, you got pretty." -to rose: "you dyed your hair!" rose: oh...thanks! she gets a compliment, i get an observation. They didn't go with us to the airport today though. we just talked to them for a while, then they walked to the beach with us. its like a 30 minute walk one way, and it was dark when we got there. the tide was out so we walked on the beach and got our shoes all muddy and dirty *my fault* yah always blame the redhead. suuuuuure. the camera people took us to eat in seocheon after our walk to the beach, because after all that strenuous exercise we were starving. :P rose's last supper in korea.....:( we had dokk-bokki, and kimpap. my favorite korean foods :) I can even eat the semi spicy foods now, must be losing tastebuds like mad cuz i couldnt even eat the ramon when i first arrived.

Roses host mom had got to dae-jeon so she wasnt home when we got back. the camera people taped some of rose packing then interviewed us. they asked us questioons like, 'did you ever regret your decision to come here?' 'now that you've been here and seen what korea is like, would you have chosen a different country?' how do you answer that? the camera crew are doing a documentary on the rotary exchange with korea, and how new and shakey the program still is. maybe it will help them see what they need to change, but it certainly isnt about how fun and excitng the exchagne students lives are....which is what they first wanted to portray. then realized, we never do anything fun and exciting...so it wasnt going to work. :( hope rotary doesnt hold it against us when they see the document! :) rose's mom didn't get home until 10, and the camera people stayed until she got home so they could interview her too. roses host mom is the awesomest host mom ever! i'm soo jealous of them! not that im unhappy at all with my host family now, but they are just soo close! like friends, and rose understands her korean, its just really really homey and sweet. i got some cute pictures of them. Now that rose is gone, and bong is in the dorms and Ri is in the usa, her mom doesn't have anyone to stay with her. I would love love love to go live with her, but I know i cant leave this school and this host family who have done some much for me already. but still, i wish i could.

bong called and said he couldnt come that night, so he would meet us at her house before we left. Rose's mom couldnt go with us to the airport, she had some business in dae-jeon again. so it was me rose bong and rose's grandfather who took us to the airport in Incheon, which is about 3 hours away. This morning before we left Ri called! she is in the usa now, going to a school in north dakota. she likes it there, and is starting track!! thats my girl!!! woohoo!!!! it was good to hear from her. bong came in right when i was on the phone with her--- "bong ri's on the phone want to talk to her???" bong-"what? my sister?? why is she calling??? no i dont want to talk to her" woah ri, feel the love? "its ok ri, bong says he loves and misses you!" haha sibling rivalry, so cute.

We left at 9. It was hard for rose to say bye to her mom, and i totally understand that. at the airport we had an hour or so after she got her luggage checked and money exchanged. wow american money looks so strange!!! it's all the same color and size, i'll get so confused! haha. korean money is only 3 colors because they only have 3 types of bills. 1,000 won, 5,000 won, and 10,000 won. which is equal to 1,5,and 10 dollars. they donthave any bills that go past 10, but you can get checks for the 100,000 bills. something in a news paper when i first got here said they were thinking about getting larger bills, like 20,000 and 50,000, which seems reasonable to me. anyways- we went to a restaurant in the airport with incredibly over priced food. we got some more pictures of roses last hours in korea. bong got some pics of me and rose too. i was looking at them later, and wow i look just like my mom. maybe he can email them to me, i'd like her to see them. its really kind of cool. at 1 she had to go, and we left her at the security check. it was sad...... but i didn't want bong and the grandfather to see me crying. so that will come later. :) im strong. im really glad bong went though, it would have been a really lonely ride back if he hadn't. then I waited for 40 minutes with him in nonsan for his bus to come. he wasnt suppose to leave school today, but he's such a rebel and all **haha**. he still had to go back and finish the school day. (till 11) sometimes he gets this look, and it just like steve soo much! ((which reminds me, i didnt even get a happy birthday from steve this year.... damn. now he's on my poop list.)) then other times he's soo politically correct it irks me. like, "hey they are highschool students *points out some students waiting for buses* they should be in school. getting good grades is so important for getting a good job and making money " and stuff like that.... and the 'ladies dont cuss' thing. thats over now but jsut for an example. but its understandable, korean culture and all.

hey hey we got a new couch! yah! its exciting! its dark brown and the mathcing new chair is against the opposite wall it was on, so evertime i walk to my room through the living room with the lights off i run right into it. all that squirrel like grace. i'll get use to it eventually, give me a week.

so now im letting the fact that rose is actually gone really sink it. this is going to be hard, but im not upset with her at all and i cant hold it against her. i totally understand why and will love her to death anyways.

:) :( :/


2 and 1/2 months until i come home. hopefully katie can come with my mom when seh picks me up. she said se might be able to but now she is reconsidering because she has marching practice. how hard is it to learn how to march? come on! but... its ok if she can't i'll understand.

all for now. no school tomorrow, so it was sort of like a 4 day weekend, which never hurt anyone :D. but i think there is some sort of school program and play i mght attend.

have you ever seen the rain comin down on a sunny day
Mood:  quizzical
I didn't mean to neglect tripod for so long. Its just really difficult to find the time to write it all on the computer, and the energy or motivation seems lacking also. The number of times people check this is dwindling down too, and how can i blame them. i don't update nearly as much as i should. things are slow moving, but theres still a lot going on. mostly in my head. so many things to think about, and especially now with school started.

Actually school didn't start until march 2nd. It just started a week early for my sister, which got me all confused. So since I had a few days to spare, I took a trip to visit Dany in Jeon-Ju. We watched movies and I got my hair restraightned.at first they didn't want to, because they'd never worked with any foreigners, and since my hair isn't naturally straight, they werent sure it would work. kind of makes me wonder about how effective this straightner chemicals they use really are. it didn't really work actually, but its better than it was. That took most of my saturday with dany. For movies we watched the terminal and how to lose a guy in 10 days. im probably the only person i know who hadn't seen that movie. the terminal was really good, tom hanks is such a great actor. i only stayed at danys for the weekend, then had to come back to nonsan and get ready for school.

Dany got me thinking about what i'm going to do when i get back from Korea. she has decided she really really likes it here, and wants to come back and teach. Professors make a lot of money, and they are desperate for spanish and english professors in good universities. I'm pretty sure I won't be coming back here to study or work, but i'd still like to travel around, and see Grmany or Peru. Also I hadn't really thought about what I was going to do to make up classes when i got back. Tracy thinks she wants to do the retake junior year thing, but I can't see that working out for me. so I'm hopefully going to be able to make up the important classes, like science and math in summer school. I need to write to B. Kein about that, and the school giving me credits for soc. studies, health, english (since i am taking 3 different english classes!) and a language credit. That'd be 7 credits all together so i wouldnt be stressed to take extra classes my senior year. I could take the classes I want, and have plenty of free time. Dany would come in June, if she can at all, and then I hope i can go visit rose in wyoming in August. it should be an exciting summer in any case.

Its still in the making for dany to come with me when i go home on june 2nd. we're still tyring to figure out what papers she needs. even though the instructions are in english, its hard for even me to understand all the papers and things she needs, so I sent the requirements to the fam in an email, and hopefully we can get some help with that. Dany and Emilio went to school in Gunsan the same day i went to St. Pauls. They are living in dorms there, and I havent gotten to talk to them since they moved, but I can't wait to here how that is going for them. i'm really happy I hve a family to live with and not have to stay in the dorms. Yea-lim is going to the same school as me, and is living in dorms, but I havent seen much of her, or visited where she is living. The first day of school was a wednesday, which got me all messed up.

The first day of school was so crazy. And being use to waking up at 12-12:30, 7 came much much too early. we dont leave until 7:30 and arrive at school at 7:45. its a short walk from my house, we dont have to take a bus, which i'm so thankful for. I had to take public busses the last part of my stay at dong-gang and that can get some expensive. its a cold walk to school so early, but at least I don't have to wear the thin uniform. I'm actually not even expected to follow most of the rules. A lot of them seem totally rediculous to me anyways, like not being allowed to wear make-up, jewelry, or your hair down. i do all of the above and no one seems to care at all. I also can wear what I want, since uniforms are expensive and they don't expect me to buy one. Teh first day the english teacher showed me around, and bought me lunch, because he didn't think i'd like the school food. but my host mom insists I eat the same thing everyone else does, and even though the English 1 teacher suggested I make my own lunch, my host mom refuses. Its not so bad, a lot of kimchi and rice, but a few lil side dishes i eat being not a big fan of kimchi... its a pretty small lunch. the students stay in one classroom and only the teachers circulate around. but its reasonable because the students have soooo many books! lockers wouldnt be sufficient, and its just easier to keep everything piled on and in desks. we eat lunch in the classroom too, but we can go to differnt rooms and the library if we want too.

everyone was very nice to me, and surprised by me too. everytime i walked into a room everyone turned and gasped, like i'd won some big award or was someone really important. its an odd reaction, because i'm just like them, with a language defect. but like I expected, but hoped wouldnt happen, after the "hi!" comes the insane giggling and shrieking and crowds to accompany me downt he hallway. "i'm --- this is --- this is ----" its so hard to remember names, especialy if i just meet them in passing, and dont see them all the time. its difficult enough just remembering the names of the girls in my clasroom alone. but everyone takes it personally if i forget their name. they only need to remember one odd name, but me, i have to memorize like 100 uncommon names. a-ra: she looks like eun-young from dong-gang. un-hye: shes the tallest girl in my class and they call her wong-noon-i, which means big eyes. ji-seon: she took me to her yoga class on day 2. thats about the extent of the names i can remember. all the waves of girls who surround me in the hallways are all the same to me, and i dont say that to sound ungrateful. it'd be so hard for me if no one even cared i was there or acted like i dont exist. i really do like getting all this speical treatment, and know it's not going to be the same when i get back to the us, so I might as well enjoy it to it's fullest now. I stayed until 5 on day 1 and 2, which is when normal classes end. then the other students have to stay until 11pm just studying on their own. Sometimes Ji-na sneaks home. Then on Friday my English 1 teacher (the main english teacher for the 2nd graders, and whose mosty in charge of me) told me if i was really bored in classes i could go home at lunch. since I like socializing wth my classmates I stay for lunch, then take my leave. Everyone is really jealous since they have to stay for 9 more hours.

Friday my host mom finally gave me an answer for my plans wth rose this weekend. so i went to pick her up on saturday at 1. So rose leaves next friday, headed back to the good ol' usa. the rotary here put her in a bad situation and things weren't improving any. its a difficult thing to explain, and if you were here you would understand, so i can't really describe why shes leaving anymore than that. I already have permission from school to miss that day so i can go with her to the airport. Now i only need to get permission from my host mom. She might be less easily convinced, but she'll have to cave eventually.

so thats all of it i think. thanks for staying tuned. i know i dont update much anymore, i'll work on it!

-lorianne-

and i dont know what to say to you but i'll smile anyhow
Mood:  caffeinated
today our vacation "ended" or at least for my sister. its strange. here we actually get 2 months of vacation where students are expected to attend school, then they get a real week break for a holiday, and its back to school. im not sure if its still vacation where they ahve to attend or if its real school and i'm suppose to attend. but either way, no one woke me up or made me go, so who knows! another week of vacation is fine by me. i'd like to visit rose dany and emilio before they go. they are going to a school about an hour from my school, and have to live in dorms. i always thought that was against rotary policy, and that they had to live in houses. if rotary people read this.... you guys should be getting in contact with, idno..someone.

I guess tracy has been telling a lot of people i ate dog, now when I go on a chat with my friends, they all ask DID YOU REALLY EAT DOG, even though it happened a while ago.

roses mom is in korea to visit, im so jealous my mom can't do something like that. but it would be too weird i think, since i'm so different here than i was in the usa. i'd feel so akward with my mom and my host family. but it works for rose. i really can't wait to meet her. i've heard so much bout her from rose alreayd.

dany might be ablet to come visit me after i get back to te usa. that would be so awesome, and her dad is working on her getting a visa right now.

i am thinking i might be happier if they do just send me to school and give me a ton of work to do. even if i dont understand it, it would giv eme something to do. i've been playing guitar a lot, its a good way to pass time. and drinking a lot of coffee and reading books. im not so sure about going to school for 15 hours though. a day! yah, i should rack up the credits like nothing. but still, tahts a long time to sit, and if i was worried i wasnt getting enough exercise now....well i can just kiss my hopes of getting back in shape before coming home good bye.

got another package from maxine, with chocolate and MY KIND OF RAMEN NOODLES, and mac and cheese!!! yay!! i also got coffee...but it was all over the box, not in the bag when i opened it. now my room smells really good- of coffee :)

im running out of things i can say. theres more, but i'll give it a few days, until i'm positive of the situation and everythings been arranged...you know?

always
lori anne


and tomorrow is heathers birthday!!! HAPPY ALMOST BIRTHDAY!!

mine is the 8th...so remember that.

happy valentines day!
Mood:  loud
hope it was good for everyone at home and everyone in belgium!

its not very big of a holiday here, girls give boys chocolate, and next month on the 14 boys give girls candy! too cute! too bad i dont know any boys in nonsan...but anyways, it was a very unexciting valentines day here. i wont go on and on about it, if i thought you should be plagued with that unexciting story, youve probably already gotten the e-mail. :)

as for everything else, i took the longest walk, and got to know the south side of nonsan pretty good, it was an hour or so walk at 10 at night, my family was probably less than impressed. but i needed to get out, i stay indoors way too often. and its so warm here. i only wore a sweatshirt instead of my heavy winter jacket, n wasnt the slightest bit cold, even at 10 at night, it still felt like spring time! im not upset about that at all. today when me and gina went to the library it was windy, but still it felt like a spring breeze, and wasnt cold. i enjoy that, better for walks.

school starts the 24th, or so Gina tells me. I'm confused though, because yea-lim still says she doesnt go to school there until march!! hmmm.... maybe i can get out of the going to school early thing and go and visit roses mom, who will be visiting in a few days!

i was going to go to jeon-ju today to visit dany, but last minute that fell through....veeery dissapointing! but its ok, maybe next week.

1 hour rule still pending, i need to go write emails and so on, so enough here. nothng is really new here anyways, maybe i'll have more to say, and update more often when school starts.

this is a good one
Mood:  cheeky
The President, the First Lady and Dick Cheney are flying on Air Force One.
George looks at Laura, chuckles and says, "You know, I could throw a
$1,000.00 bill out the window right now and make somebody very happy."
Laura shrugs her shoulders and says, "Well, I could throw ten $100.00 bills
out the window and make 10 people very happy." Cheney says, "Of course
then, I could throw one-hundred $10.00 bills out the window and make a
hundred people very happy."

The pilot rolls his eyes, looks at all of them and says to his co- pilot,
"Such big shots back there.....hell, I could throw all of them out the
window and make 56 million people very happy."

the year of the rooster
Mood:  lyrical
after my weekend with rotary i spent most of my week eating, then being sick from too many rice cakes (haha only in korea!) and making plans for graduation. of course i'm a procrastinator, so the day im suppose to leave, friday, i call kg at around 6pm and have her call my host family in soecheon to arrange a meeting wth them. she does so, and like 20 minutes later my family is rushing me outta the house to get me on a bus. i hate being rushed, someday im really going to learn how to manage my time, and wn't get rushed for everything. really, its on my swamped list of things to do.

the bus ride was like 1.5 hours, thats kinda rediculous, and i was unsure wehre to get off. but the bus driver listined to oldies american songs, that totally reminded me of when i was lil and riding in teh car with mom we use to listin to stations like that. i zoned out remembering how good it felt to be 5 and completely careless. when i arrived my family took me out to eat at the tower bird watch restaurant that changes color and the platform turns. how cool is that?? the meal was good but i was still sort of sick from the rice cakes, so i didn't eat much. they always serve snails there, which got me thinking...

why does it seem so morally wrong to eat dog, when people in different cultures eat snails and that is perfecty acceptable! snails! they taste really good, but honestly i feel much worse about eating snails than i do abot eating dogs! with dogs, the ones you eat anyways, they live in a kennel or on a leash, get food brought right to them, eat enough to make them plump for cooking, and just bark their brains out to amuse themselves! now look at how hard snails work their whole livs, dragging their house around with them, struggling with the slowness of progress, only to be dug out of their baked homes and eaten, what a disgraceful way to go! i definitely feel for the snails.

since seocheon parents dont really care how long i'm on the computer i wanted to take advantage of their computer and talk to my usa friends. the internet must have known i was there cuz it randomly decided not to work, even t hough its worked every day there since i moved out! that computer has something against me i know it!

me and ji-eun got to school on saturday at around 8:30 even though the ceremony wasnt until 10. it was boring for a while there, emilio got there around 9 and we sat at the computer not really bothering to mingle with the middle school students. after spending a weekend with the college students, some thing about being back at middle school just seems a little below us, not to sound to arrogant or anything. everyone was awed by my hair cut, i forgot they didn't see it before i moved, and i looked much more korean now. rose came right before everyone sat down for the ceremony in the cold as ice box auditorium. dany came with her host sister a few minutes into it, and julian didnt come cuz its like 4 hours away for a lil middle school graduation. i dont blame him. it was not entertaining, my feet started going numb, and they had like 4 different people stand up to make heart felt 15 minute speaches. that feels like eternity when you dont understand anything they are saying and you cant feel your limbs. we werent' an actual part of the ceremony because idno why, but i only went to get my year book anyways. it was only middleschool i was surprised at how drawn out and serious the ceremony was. no one of the exchange students were really paying attention, rose was having a family crisis, i dont know howo something that seemed so good could fall apart in just a week. that is pretty tragic, and they just made ehr pack up and move in like an hour, this was a not well thought out move and so selfish on her families part. but now she's back with the yoo family, who she likes. it does suck that she has to leave nike..

after the ceremony finally ended all the students egged and floured eachother. it looked like so much fun, i wish i was korean so i could join, but it just didnt feel right joining in on their fun, cuz i dont think i was that close with them. but me dany, her host sister, ji-yang, and emilio all stuck together, rose and yea-lim trooped to her house. ri went to the usa, im sooo happy for her!! she'll be there when me and rose get back, and wehn i got to wyoming, thats the plan for august, she will have to come visit us! i forget teh state they put her in, somewhere in the midwest.

me and my gang went to the norae bang for a couple of hours which is always fun. the party girls from dong-gang were all there with their boyfriends and would stop in occasionally and chill with us. i was close with them, like kyeong-hwa and eun-ju. too cute! but i didn't realize how expensive noraebangs were, no wonder people always go in large groups and split the cost!

dany had a date after that so her and her host sister took off and me and emilio hung out till 10, after he'd sucessfully missed all the busses to his house and had to have his host family come and get him. haha go emilio. he's back with chong-ho's family cuz the other one was terrible! rose's was very unpredictable in kicking her out, but emilio's has been bad from the start. he finally got out of there, and rose is back with her soecheon family, i think rotary did a really bad job in plaicng us! i'm pretty happy with my famly and dany and her sister get along so well! 3 outta 5 ain't bad.

I stayed in soecheon until monday, and saturday night and sunday night i was up on the computer until 5 in the morning talking to my mom and jack and maxine and all those good people, this left me pretty sleep deprived for solar, which was tuesday! i didnt have much time to sleep off the weekend before we had another place to go. but talking to all my friends was really worth it. monday they sent me by bus back to nonsan, where we ate mc.donalds and went shopping in nonsan town center. its really nice. i bought my wall clock that i really needed, i mis my funny tick clock...but this one is cute, its pretty plain but its got 2 heart with wings on it. 2 cute! we got home and i went right to bed. that was nice and relaxing. my family here prolly thinks im the laziest exchage student ever! i am always sleeping during the day. yah they are probably right.

me and my sisters took a bus to jeon-ju at 11, but my host parents didn't get to harmonies house until much much lter. my gram is so cool, shes not one of those really rude old ladies that pushes you on the bus, like i'v enconteren one too many times. a lot of the family was there, 4 lil boys 2 aunts and 2 uncles. they were really nice and laid back, i didnt feel watched and expected to be the perfect korean speaker. they just watched tv and made all the food we would need for solar the next day. i watched tv and played with the kids and listined to music. now that i got 2 weekends ago seouls trip off my camera I finally have space for new pics. i got some of me and gina finaly, and some of me and the kids. 2 the middle aged boys were the coolest, they were maybe 4 or 5. the youngest didnt talk much and only cried to his mom and dad. the oldest was idno, 8. its soo hard for me to guess korean ages, but thats a good generalization anyways. the middle aged boys, one was real thin with a high voice and thick glasses taht made his eyes look huge. he was so loving and would cuddle up next to me when we watched tv. the other was always running around playing with the oldest boy, and loved getting pics taken of him. they werent shy around me and didn't think i was some kind of alien. horray for that. the morning of solar we were all watching tv and the uncle said " go tell nuna (what boys call older sisters) 'saranghae nuna"' the youngst wouldnt do it, which was like, hey! im nice to you buddy! but the lil one with out glasses ran right up to me ** saranghae nuna!!** ohhh hes the best!

the night before me and gina had stayed up until almost 3:30 watching a horror movie in english. im use to staying up until 5 or so now, so the plan to start going to bed at a decent hour has gone right down the drain. but at least i wasnt the only one. we woke up early, i was the last one up like usual. everyone was making food again, and preparing the table in the other room with all the foods and rituals. it looked just like wht they did in chuseok. then we ate a nice big breakfast with the whole family, and it included kalbi and chicken! on yum!!!! chicken is sooo good. me and ji-yoon took a nap after that, still working on catchin up my sleep! this was a really interesting holiday where all the kids bow to the adults and the adults generously hand out money. im talkn like 10,000 won to each lil tot from each adult. but it was really cool, i bowed with them and in all i got 45,000 won which i really needed anyways.

so i guess thats everything,
got an email from tracy tat i am going to write back to hopefully soon

-lorianne-


oh yah! me and mom are calling me lorianne now since theres alreayd one laurie there, and it gets confusing. so at least while laurie 2 is around, its lorianne. i like it :)

and we will call them scarf windy and fubu
Mood:  spacey
last weekend we had a rotary meeting type thing. it wasn't actually a lunch meeting like we had expected. we went on friday and stayed until sunday.

had to take a train to yongsan station wher we would meet KG n then go to a hotel and stay the night. i wasnt sure how the train ride was suppose to go if i was suppose to meet my friends there, or in yongsan, and i didnt have a seat, or any idea where to go, it was flustering. i was just following the poeple around me. but then emilio found me. he looked good, he's lost a lot of weight, but i guess its cuz his family doesnt feed him enough, and he's trying to get back with chong-hos family. i hope that works out, cuz he's not happy at all with the family he has now. since i didn't have a seat i sat with dany and rose. it was soo good to see them again, i'd talked to them on the phone a few times but it was such a great reunion! i missed my girls! then we got off at the wrong station, and seoul is huge! it took her an hour or so to find us, then took us by van to our motel. it was a really cute place, me dany and rose got a room together. it had coffee and a red pimped out light, and a mirror as a head board. woah! i didnt think koreans did that! heh.

we left at noon on saturday to get to the rotary meeting at a place only like 5 minutes away. it was a lot of students from different schools. maybe groups of 4 who knew eachother. we were put in groups so all the exchange students were split up. i was in a group with all college students. they were really nice, one guy, yong-chil had gone to las vegas a few years ago, so he knew english really well. that was a relief. we had to make a poster for our group and played games to get to know eachotehr. it lasted all day, then me dany and emilio and julian stayed up all night partying with our new friends. it was a lot of fun, but we had to be up by 7 to go mountian climbing. i didnt bring shoes for it, just my boots with heels. no one said anything about mountian climbing...:( not many people got any sleep, so everyone looked pretty dazed and confused on the hike the next day. it was fun though. we partnered up, my partner was one of the girls from my group, go-eun. she was so nice, and yong-chil and his friend helped me. then another girl from my group traded shoes with me when i couldnt feel my feet any more, heels were a bad idea i'm thinking. it was cold, but fun. at the top everyone stoped tto take pictures. i should have brought my camera, but it doesnt have any memory left. hopefully i can ge the pictures off of that when i got to seocheon for graduation. the view was so beautiful.

we had to leave at noon, it was so sad. i'll never forget the people i met there, they were some of the coolest people ever! it was a rotaract and interact meeting which they onlydo once a year.

when i had to get off the train i realized i only had one of my bags, so rose and dany had to do a mad dash all through the train to locate my other bag. i'll get that from them this weekend. i couldnt' call my other host family, their phones are messed up, but i'm still working on arrangements for that. maybe i can stay at roses house.

i've been on the computer for more than an hour. more tomorrow maybe

the kim family
Mood:  happy
I"m now staying with the Kim family. i was so worried about changing families, and what if they don't like me, and everything, but now that im here im so happy! it was an akwardly silent first night, but after that its been great!

I have 3 host sisters, the youngest, ji-eun, is in 5th grade elementary school, ji-na goes to the same school as me and is my age. the oldest, ji-yoon, just graduated and is starting classes at daechon university in march. my host mom calls herself host mommy, "host mommy now work go" haha. we live on the floor above the store my dad owns. its like a suit store i think i've never been in there. he's busy a lot though.

my family all cooks for themselves, when ever they are hungry. thats a change from shinyoung aparntments where we always ordered out food or myhost mom did all the cooking. i like this arrangement just as well, except for my lack of cooking skills. we eat a lot of kimpap and dokboki. im getting more accustomed to eating spicy food! i never though i'd get use to it.

my sisters introduce me to many of their friends and i got to meet the family. my grandmother owns a lingerie shop, thats pretty cool. its in downtown nonsan, we go there a lot to visit. the cousins work there so its like a family gathering at the lingerie shop.

my sister took me to her little english school. the teacher is from canada, but is korean. he is really nice, and was so excited to meet me. i didn't stay in the class room, i hung out in the office and used the computer for an hour until class was over then me and the students went out side and played badmitten.

my oldest host sister is going to college for something piano, and she works at a piano haggwan (academy) i went with her a few days ago, but it was a lt of little kids all staring at me and i'm still not really comfortable with the animal in a zoo thing. one of the girls invited me to her house for a couple hours. her mom took us to a korean outside market that are really common. we got some lunch, and she bought some fish. the fish markets are strange. you see the fish, whole, and choose which one you want, then the butches takes it chops it up for you and sticks it in a bag. its kinda scary all the lil fish heads all around the shop, and the smell is unpleasent even with the shop outside. i had fun spending time with this family, the mom is really into sports and likes tiger woods. yep we get along great! they had the cutest puppy! a lot of people who live in apartments have dogs. we visited one of ji-euns friends yesterday and they had a lil terrier dog. i wish this family would get a dog, i miss bean!

my host mom is buddhist but my sisters are catholic. so we dont go to church every sunday. and my host mom brought me to a temple the other day. complete with the whole bowing thing. im sure if i went to the temple every day i'd be in excellent shape. its up a million stairs then when you bow you stand, kneel, touch head to mat, put hands up in ome sign, kneel, stand, then repeat 2 more times. turn right and repeat. you do this in several different buildings. and light incense and place it in an urn. there are candles you can buy at the shop below the temple and you light one for each of your family members and make a request or something. i didnt catch everything since it was all in korean. but it was certainly an experience.

i called kim gabin last night and she said we, all the exchange students are going to seoul this weekend for a rotary meeting. finally! we havent been to any yet. not with our actual rotary. i need to remember to bring our rotary stuff to trade with them.

me and the 2 oldest sisters have conversations wher we are teaching eachother english and korean. its realy helpful, and i feel like i'm learning a lot more here. we spend a lot of time together as a family, thats really nice.

me and my host sister went to daechon to see the movie shark tale or something. it was good but no one else thought it was funny cuz the parts are kind of lost when translated to korean. and you'd have to be from america to get a lot of it. we went shopping in this realy big underground mall before and jina bought me these really cute earrings. before i left for nonsan bong came over and had bought me some nice buddhist symbol (also knows as nazi signs) earrings. im sending darin the buddhist necklace so i dont go back to the us and get beat up over something really stupid. bongs friend, ojin, has a lot of friends in nonsan that go to st paul, so he called them and told them about me, they're lookin out for me. plus jina has a lot of friends that want to meet me, i should do fine!

im teaching my youngest host sister guitar, but its really difficult, with not being able to communicate with her very well, and some things need to be explained but are really complicated. i did teach her how to read tabs, that was frustrating. i dont think i'm really qualified to teach anyone guitar, since i'm still learning myself. but its said that a good way to learn is to teach. duno who said that but i think they weren't as right as everyone thought.

i only get an hour at the computer every day, computer rules i guess, and i've exceeded my hour, so i better go before someone notices.

-lori-