she said 'you would not understand'...slammed the door and said "i'm sorry, I had a bad day again"
Mood:  don't ask
its been one of those weeks i guess.

um...

got into a tiff with ji-na, over who i can and can't be friends with. its still not solved i dont think, but at least we are talking again. got into a tiff with my older sister, over nothing really...she just stopped talking to me one day, along with all of the friends of hers that i use to talk to a lot. now thats ironic huh?

me: ji-yoon, when are you getting back?
ji-yoon, *stares at me, squints,goes,"emmmmmm ja-jjung-naaaaaaaaaaaaa(like 'errrr' when annoyed) ..... uhhhhhh!!!!!!! ji-naaaaaaaaaaaa~~~ borageeoooooo???????? (what did she say?)*deep sigh* ahhhh jaaaaaaa-jjung-naaaaaaaaaa"

but! she moved to the dorms in her univeristy yesterday i think. this is extremely good news because if i have to hear that ja-jjung-na one more friggen time i'll give her something to "ja-jjung-na" about!


nothing was really going well in nonsan, i didnt go to classes on thursday beause....i just couldnt. it was too much stress. i wasnt even out of school, i just didnt go to class.i was in the library till lunch and went home. but even so, kg got a call from one of the school people, [probably mr soh, cuz he has say over me,] and they said she should talk to me becuase i'm becoming a problem student. i'm such a rebel.... KG says i should go to her when i have problems. yah i'll try that. they seem so fine with me going to the library to get away from my stress, i wonder how she expects me to get in contact with her in soechoen? thanks for your concern, kg, but you just dont get it.

me emilio and dany were invited to seocheon this weekend for a school officials meetng. wejust had to teach a class, and welcome them when the important people came. with my week from hell behind me i was hoping this weekend would be something to relax me, or something. i got to seocheon at 8 and went to emilios house where dany and emilio were both staying. it was alright, and on friday we went to donggang middleschool. it was different with out the students we use to be in the same class with. we saw kyeong-hwa on our way to school, she was walking to her highschool. she looks so different! so grown up. and hee-sung whose in the 2nd grade now got sooo tall! wow!everyone else had changed a little too. they had a new native english teacher now, john T from texas. he is way way better than garreth and doesnt hit the students. he's only been here for 2 months and we talked to him, its like everything he says sounds just like what we went through too. after lunch we went back to chongito's house (chong-ho) me and emilio played bad mitten for a while, and went to the market in soecheon with his mom. dany slept most of the time. things were really different with me and her. ji-eun had been really glad to see me though, and so was bean! ^^ at the middleschool ji-eun was showing me around to the new students, going isnt she pretty isnt she prety? (yeppun yeppun yeppun???)

today we brought dany to the school in gunsan so she could meet up with her host sister and go to their house in jeon-ju. emilio will stay until tomorrow but i wont see him again this weekend. before we dropped dany off at her school we did some shopping for emilio. his dad gave us 10 minutes so we were running al over the store, trying to find pants and shirts for him. tomorrow me and ji-eun are going back to do some shopping for ourselves.

dany told me she couldnt get her visa so shes not coming back with me. i think its for the best since it's going to be difficult starting over and all.

i lost a contact yesterday and my head really hurts from just using one. i can get another one when i get back to nonsan but i have another day to just use one. its hard to see and my head is throbbing.

will go to bed now or something.

-rori-

nae maum apayo
Mood:  accident prone
"i cant leave things well alone understand i'm accident prone"

last weekend i went to dae-kon boys highschool. ji-na went with me but only brougth me there, then her and mom left. one of the boys in the 1-5 class had gone to new zealand so he knew pretty good english and translated for me. the teacher just left me there in the class to take over, and i had a translater and just answered questions the whole hour class. i did pretty good, despite how extremely nervous i was. after the hour was over they wanted pictures. i have them in my yahoo album.

didnt do anything sunday. borng boring boring. monday we had school. i had only gotten like 3 hours of sleep so it was a miserable monday. most mondays are though. BUT! tuesday completely made up for it. we had it off for koreans day of trees. its like arbor day. me and some friends planned to meet at the school then go to pizza hut and go to the noraebang. i was the first to arrive and then a-ra and i-sul. eun-young and eun-hee came too, which was unexpected. we met su-mok and her boyfriend at pizza hut. it was unfun for him since he was the only guy and they had decided before hand that they werent going to lik ehim. so before our pizza ever arrived he left and took su-mok with him. we tried to convince her to stay but she barely ever gets to see him i can understand her wanting to spend her day off from school with him. ara didnt take it quite as well, infact they havent spoken at all today. hmm. anyways. the pizza was excellent:D then we went to the noraebang in the town center. the weather was soo sooo sooo beautiful! i couldnt have chosen a better day to get off from school! really.

the noreabang was nicely decorated but it didnt have a real good selection of english songs which was dissapointing. but anyhow, we stayed there fora few hours. my singing is soo bad! and koreans all have such good singing voices, but they gave me more than my fair share of singing time, beacuse i'm "special guest" and i didnt have to pay for anything. :) after my songs they all told me how good my singing is. hah what crap,but they are too too nice. it was great bunches of fun. days like that are what make me htink i want to come back and spend a year here for college. just because it was soo nice to be part of something. yes too much fun. i even sang some of the korean songs. they were extremely impressed with that. *pats self on back*
when we left we hit up mcdonalds and strolled around shi-nae ( the town center with all the open markets and clothing stores.) since the weather was good we got ice creams and just window shopped. what koreans call 'noon' shopping. (eye shopping) like shoppign with your eyes get it? ok.
i got a little snow globe with korean people in it and a glass block with the laser bubbles they can do, know what i mean? with the 3-d picture in them? its really cool, its got a korean bell and says korea's bell in korean underneith it. i have a postcard of the same bell, so i'm going to send that to heike someday. since i did promise her a post card forever ago. maybe if it comes with a little present she'll look past how unfashionably late it is.
we all met at 11:30 and didnt get home till 5. it was good fun. at school wher we all departed we found yon-nam and i-ji. she got her hair cut so it looks so cute! i-ji i had never met until yesterday. she looks just like a korean version of jesse matherson. crazy.
me and ji-eon went to the vido store and rented the last samuri later and we watched half of the first tape when ji-yoon came back and me her and ji-na all went to shi-nae again. ji-yoon did some shopping and we just followed. after we went to the venus store her grandmother owns. she takes me and jina and starts fitting us for bras, right in the middle of the store, infront of god and everyone. luckly by night the shi-nae was pretty empty, so not many people were around to see. she gave me some pajamas and me and jina each underware. so nice.
afterwards we got home, and it was all good until my mom got home and had a fit. i dont understand any of it, but she was yelling at ji-na and i dont know what i did but she sent me to my room anyways.

so that was my korean tree day. it was great.
right now since my classes are over im in the library. the middle students come in and just attack me. i spend more time introducing myself and shaking hands than i do actually on the computers i think. not that im complaining, cuz i like all the attention. but its tiring too. their english is minimal and my korean is even less. tap-dap hada....himdul-ro.
its raining out now but i think im gonna head home, or maybe just walk around.

lilredd-headedgurrl rambles on at 3:55 PM JST

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man-oo-jol (april fools day)
Mood:  caffeinated
april fools day was crazy. koreans definitely get a lot more into april fools day than they do for easter and christmas! we have new desk arrangements now so im not sitting by jina any more. it so boring and the girl i sit next to just sleeps all class. su-mok i-sul and a-ra keep me company though, and jina kinda leaves me on my own. shes probably tired of translating for me all the time. i can't blame her i bet its hard work.

in the morning everyone was switching classes and going crazy. i stuck with i-sul and su-mok cuz getting lost in all the chaos could have been dangerous. then mr. soh got on the loud speaker and started having a 15 minute fit about the schools disorder. but thats how it is suppose to be i guess, and the students seems unphased by his orders to return to thier classes. it was all a little strange, andi didnt know what was going on...but it was fun. we ended up in a classroom a few rooms down, cuz mr soh would come in and kick all the students who arent suppose to be there out, and we'd run to a new classroom, and all the teachers are just going about thier lessons like there arent 30 extra kids running around and hiding and getting yelled at in their classroom.

before lunch we went to the art teachers class becuase mr soh wouldnt find us there. we spent the rest of the tme before lunch there. the art teacher is also my home room teacher. he's by far the nicest teacher in the whole school. and let us all say there, and one of the girls brought a soju bottle, (filled with water i'm assuming....) to school for him because he's known for enjoying alcohol a lot. the school doesnt mind because he's such a good artist and is old.

on wednesday they all had testing so i didnt have to go to clas. i wasnt suppose to be in school at all but home was boring and i had nothing else to do so i used the computer in the library all day. during their testing some of the girls would come in and visit me, but mostly it was just me and the librarian. the library was sooo freezng, and thursday i had a really unfun cold so i stayed home. i told jina i would go to school later but i just didnt feel like it later either. and no one cared because they can't really get mad at me. i'm like the special ed kid who sits in the back of the class and doesnt understand anything the teacher says, but they all pat her on the back, smile, and tell her shes doing a good job anyways. :) yah that is me. make the usa proud, i do.



anyways. this weekend, it doesnt look like anything i had planned is going to work out. min-jeong is leaving for japan next week. he had said he might visit this weekend, but now it looks like a no. we went out to eat with his family and another family last week. outback steak house! yay! that was fun...but its probably going to be the last time i see him. :(
byeong-ju might visit, but the parents are probably going to be home this weekend so he can't visit like last time and stay at the house. maybe we'll all go to the gymchilbang again. and ji-yoon isnt taking me to visit her university or the boys highschool, and ji-na doesnt want to go with me cuz shes "shy". grrr. so that isnt happening. damn i've been looking forward to this weekend all week cuz i finally had plans,and now its al just like...well none of its going to happen.

*sigh*

i got a package from katie. i dont know if i mentioned that already or not, but yah, very impressive. that was a 52 $ package. i do love katier.

maybe rose will call this weekend. it seems like forever ago that i heard from her, and i always miss her online. also no emails from her for a while too. ahhh~~ its hard to take

KG called and said all the exhcnage studnents are suppose to go to seocheon the wekend of the 8th for some celebration. i dont really want to , and that was the weekend emilio had his birthday thing planned. no one even asked him, she just called his school and had the teachers inform him he was going. i doubt we really HAVE to go, so we could all just meet at emilios place in gunsan anyways, and say sorry kg, we were really busy. since we arent part of the middle schools exchange program then they can't really expect us to be there everytime they have ceremony. the school officials want to meet us. that sounds like a whole lot of fun. no not really. but i'd get to see ji-eun again. its up to dany and emilio. if they want to go i'll go, and we can go back to gunsan after the middleschool thing.

ifyou havent checked my cyworld link you should, its really fun! and i have new pictures of roses, from when she left. theyre good.

i got a letter from cayla on tuesday and sent one out to her on wednesday. i feel so acomplished! its good hearing from her. i should mail her some more pictures now that i have a few lying around.

all for this week i think. we get a day of school off on tuesday for arbor day. woohoo!

-rori-

happy rabbit day!
Mood:  silly
its not really rabbit day anymore....but they dont celebrate it here , and it is only a few hours past rabbit day for everyone in the usa anyways. give me a lil credit. ^^
i got a cyworld! its a lil miny hompy everyone in korea, practically everyone, has, its such a good way to learn korean and stay in touch with people

my site name is www.cyworld.com/lori06

a lot of it is korean, but you can get the main idea of it. its fun. i spend most of my computer time on there trying to translate the messeges people post to me on the guest book thing. ji-yoons friend byeong-ju is trying to teach me korean that way, but damn i must be the slowest learner ever! i accidentally called one girl dumb, when i meant to say my korean is bad, it came out saying she is bad =dumb. well damn me. today she came up to me, "why you call me bad?" me? call you bad? i did what? uh...crap. she wasnt angry... luckily, and everyone understands how poor my korean is so she laughed it off. i felt so dumb though.

last night i found the candles in my luggage with the log cabin scene on it that looks like my house. they were for my host family, as xmas presents, and i gave 1 to ji-euns family, but had 2 left...so i gave one to ji-yoon and one to ji-na.

my family has a new set up on our coffee table with the familys pictures. they had everyones there, but no pics of me, since you know...im not relaly family.i pointed this out to my mom..."oma.... jiyoon issoyo, jina issoyo, jieon issoyo.....ji-u (thats me ^^) obsoyo...." so we found a good pic and she put it with the rest of the family. i feel so accepted. :)when we have guests she shows them the family pictures collection :) oh yah! that includes me. woot!

today in korean class they were reading from their text book, and im not paying any attention because i rarely ever do...i was studying my korean books that are much more down at my level.i hear "sup?"... "what's up" haha.. what? ok, im back, what did i miss? that was in their text book i guess, as an example. so jina was asking me about it so i explained 'sup was much more of a ghetto term, and what's up, was more common and preferable over "how are you? what are you doing?" so everyone, practicing "suuuuup??" and "whats up??" all together. it was great:)

sunday i got a call from rose!! it was the best. the phone reception was not great, but still. we use to talk almost every day a month ago....then i havent heard from her for a few weeks....so yah that was really awesome. when i get back to the us it'll definitely be back to calling that girl every day. i miss her so much!!!!!!

i sent the 2 big boxes home i've been meaning to send out for a couple...months...now. hah o well. i sent them both by ship which cost me only 25,000won and i have another package all ready with my hanbok in it...but im owrried about it. if that gets lost i'll be beyond upset. well.. hopefully it will make it home in one piece. it should be there about the same time i get there, since it takes a good 2 months for anything by ship.

saturday was jimmys birthday!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!LOVE YOU!!!

??"

^thats a heart incase it doesnt work with this program

well my hour is so far over, i better go before anyone notices


-lori-


new pics!

lilredd-headedgurrl rambles on at 4:53 PM WST

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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.