thunder)) only happens, when it's raining ..and players (( only love you when they're playing
Mood:  surprised
theres no other way to describe this week besides surprising. really.

first, i'll put the letter chang won park wrote me. he was warning me if i don't start following school and family rules they will send me home early. oops!! LIke i said, it's been a crazy week.


[Dear Lori,

How are you, Lori? I hope you have been enjoying your school life and also Korean life. Our inbound Rotary Exchange Students seem to have successful
year here in Korea and to have achieved many things. I understand that many of you had difficult times to adapt to new culture, new customs, and new
environment. I am very proud of all of you that you have overcome such difficulties and played an important role as an ambassador. I know that you are not exception.

It's almost time for you guys to go back to your own country. I wish you all will finish our program successfully. However, Lori, I am sorry to mention this to you that your behavior and your way of adapting to school and your host family seem out of control now. Ms. Gabin Kim has been very patient up until now and your school teachers have been observing you and have tried to understand you. But their patience is limited. As far as I know, Ms. Kim warned you several times and I know that you do understand the regulations of YEP. You need to follow school regulations and host family regulations. If school or host family has been treating you unfairly or not reasonably, please let me know. I am open to hear your own opinion. Otherwise, if you want to finish YEP completely and successfully, I hope you do not make troubles any further and must follow guidelines from your homeroom teacher of St. Paul Girls' High School and host parents. This is the first and last warning to you. We will observe you for one more week and then we will make a decision whether you will stay till the last moment or have to leave to your home country before the program ends.

I hope you will finish this program successfully. Please let me know if you have any problem or question.

Sincerely,

Chang Won Park]

i've only missed 4 days of school. I think that's not so bad, considering it's my last month. I don't think sending me home early would do much good, I'm stressed as it is trying to get ready to go with 3 weeks left. Yah get me on a plane a week early will solve eeeeeveryones problems, im sure. Kim Gabin didn't know when I was leaving, Im sure he didn't know either, because with only 21 more days left, how much earlier could he possibly send me home?
wtf
sorry mom, sorry god.
hah.

well, i've been having the time of my life. on the 7th I went to seoul. getting there was an experience and a half. when i woke up on saturday i had no idea when or how i was getting to seoul. i called julian, but there were no buses to yong-in, the city he lives in. none to su-won, a neighboring city either. so i got the time for a bus to chon-an, packed my bag, got on a bus at 10:20. i met someone on the bus and talked to them for maybe 2 hours which thankfully made the trip seem much shorter. I took a bus to su-won from chon-an, then a bus to yong-in from su-won, so it was a pretty expensive trip jsut getting there. but i met julian at the bus stop, (at 3:30, so that was a good 5 hour bus ride.) and him, his mom, and me all went out to eat. his mom is really really nice. she doesnt' knwo any english,but is ok because Julians Korean is soo amazing. wow. koreans talk to him naturally like they would with any korean, and he understands and talks back and its woah, sooo impressive. i jsut told everyone I didnt know any korean. compared to julian, i really dont.

saturday felt like the longest day of my entire life. it was soo soo soo much fun, but really, really long. this is just all my day, in a nutshell. we drove to a store near the bus stop that is owned by a woman julian's mom knows. she's very "excentric" as julian put it. and he is right. wow shes crazy! she has the weirdest clothing. good though, like i'd definitely wear it. i bought a play boy bunny tank top there, and she gave me a necklace that was really cute. we have some coffee and then go to julians house. Ileave my stuff there, redo my makeup and all, and we head out for seoul, thats like a 40 minute bus ride from his house. we just walked around some, and walked to his girlfriends house to meet her. I've heard a lot about her, but didn't see much of her cuz we were running late to meet some of julians friends, so coudlnt stay long. she was mad she hadn't seen him at all that week, so that would explain it. we met his friends at 7 and walked to a soju hoff. 5 shots of soju later we went out clubbing. there was one near by that let us in even though me and julian didn't have id's with us. phew! it was really crowded and a lot of fun. first time i've been clubbing since i've been in korea. we met some new people, danced until around.......3?? since the buses for julians city stopped running at 11:30 we had definitely missed it. so we went to a kim-bab store and went to a pc bang at maybe...5. they're pretty inexpensive and open all night so we stayed there playing computer games or what ever until 7:30 that morning. jae-il and song-ku (julians friends, live in seoul, so they exited the scene at like 7 am) we get home at 8:30, sleep until 1. get ready and go back to seoul. this is sunday. we get off the bus, are walking to the subway, julian stops and points

"hey!! hes famous!!"
and this star, who i've seen in television soo many times, but can't remember his name, stops and points "hey! foreigners!" but in korean of course. and me-"????"
so he comes over and is interviewing julian (since i dont know korean i jsut stand there in total shock) and theres a camera going, and a huge crowd of koreans all taking pictures on their cell phones, it was definitely a sight. so yah, we're even more of celebrities now. haha no no, it was really crazy. we got pictures with him, at 30 minutes later, were on our way again. we take subways all over the place to get to a bank that will accept julians card, then do some shopping. we went out to eat at KFC and there was a foreigner there, so we were guessing where he was from by his accent. he looked american but i dont htink he had an american accent, it sounded more...russian maybe. but julian was certain he was from america. um, at 8 or so we met 2 more of julains friends, ju-eun, and hae-beom. hit up pizza hut, then went out to one of those 7,500 won per cup of coffee, coffee shops. it was really really beautiful though. we took lots f pictures (well i took lots of pictures where ever i went, i just need julian to send me them now) ju-eun invited me to visit her school the thursday of the 26th, then we will all go out clubbing the 27th, and i'll jsut hang out in seoul the 28th 29th. theres never a shortage of things to do and people to meet in seoul. really.

it was late and i didnt wanna go home so we called and asked if i could stay another day. i wanted to visit julians university. seemed like a good idea to him too. so on monday we went to school, and i couldnt go to the classes obviously, so i stayed in the computer lab until jae-il found me, and we just walked around a little bit. he had an assignment to do, so that left me on the computer some more. julian introduced me to some of his friends, dae-hun, and another but i cant remember the other's name. they were so so nice, andfunny, i got a lot of pictures with them. every time someone came in they'd hey take a picture of us take a picture with us. haha. ^^ they're all on my hompy, when i can i'll add some to yahoo. we ate lunch on campus, and i met a lot of julians friends. they were all sooooooooo nice i had so much fun. it would have been so much better if i had come for a year at a univeristy instead of a year in highschool. but i do want to come back for a year i think in college. classes were over at 4 for julian so we went back to his house, and went to seoul to meet his girlfriend. first we did some shopping, and then we met her for a few drinks. jae-il met us and by 9:30 we realized we were going to be sooooooo late for my bus to nonsan if we didnt leave then. so we leave, take subway after subway, running up stairs across streets, get lost in the mall place where teh bus stop is, run up escalaters, it was the most work i've done probably all month. we get there, and the bus last bus left 14 minutes ago!! just 14~~~ we were so close! dammit. so we call kg and she tells my fam i'll stay another night and will go back the next day. oops. sorry. instead of going back to julians house and taking the bus again realy early me and jae-il went to a gym-chil-bang near the bus place. that way we wouldnt have to wake up so early. it was another really long walk back to the gymchilbang. but of course you can't sleep realy well there with the marble floors and otehr people snoring and all. i only slept for liek 3 hours, and at 10 i got on an express bus back to nonsan. this one was only 12,000 won and only took 3 hours. very nice. nexttime i go i'll definitely take that bus.

i walked to school when i got back to get a key from ji-na, went home showered, and then got a call from dany and emilio. they were at my school and were looking for me. so i do my hair, walk to school to get htem. we leave their stuff at my house, and walk to the shi-nae.its really the only interestng place to go in nonsan. got some socks, a pair of heels so i wont have to wear sneakers next time i go clubbing. more fashionable ya know? spent the remainder of last months money there, and now i'm hopign the school wont be so mad that i missed so much schoool, and will still pay me for may. i neeeeed it. and we walked home. we talked a lot, and then at 10 they went out armed with coins to make phone calls to mexico because it was mothers day.
i love you mom
happy ((belated)) mothers day!!! ^^

idno what time they got back cuz i fell asleep and slept straight until noon today. i neeeeeeeeeded sleep. like woah. the school, mr soh, lectured me because my friends couldnt be there. they were disrupting class. so we left,and since they were sitll here today i figured it would be dumb for me to go to school and just leave them at home. also there was no way they were going to wake me up this morning, i was so dead. me and dany and emilio planned to meet friday, i'd go to gunsan, then to jeon-ju with dany and her family, coming home sunday night, since it's ji-na's birthday. it started thunderig and raining as we left.

i love thunder, idno why, but, its the first time it's thundered since i've been in korea...i really forgot how much i love it. we waited for their bus for an hour, and talked. they're my best friends, the exchange students i met this year, i'm going to miss them so so so much when i go back. (except for rose, cuz im gonna see her all the time, i mean hell i might just move in with her^^) so we are making so many plans to meet though, between now and when i leave. and hopefully they can some with me when i leave. (emilio and dany) i dont knwo how i'm getting to the airport though, but whats 2 more people?? my family probably wont come, unless its just my mom or something, since my sisters all have school. i went with rose when she left and it is meaningful that i have someone come with me. so wehn i know whose taking me i can arrange for them to come too.

so that was a "short" version of my weekened. now tomorrow we have our school trip and then firday its off to gunsan again. soh sonsaengnim told me yesterday that the school would pay for me to go on the trip to everland, the theme park, which is really good cuz its like 40,000 won, and i dont really have that much on hand right now.

------------------------------------
thats everything i think.

more later.

will add pictures to may album so check back some time

For freedom and for pleasure Nothing ever lasts forever Everybody wants to rule the world
Mood:  suave
it always feels like this, when i get back from soecheon. it whipes me out, and i can't figure out why. and i love seeing my old host family, but their constant, "we're late we're late!!" (for a very important date!!) always makes me feel like im in the middle of a really upside down lewis carroll book. and seeing emilio and dany is good cuz i always miss them so much when im in nonsan, and seeing them seperatly is very fun. but when they are together, forget it! constantCONSTANTCONSTANT spanish. its sooo....dap-dap-hae. it just gets on my nerves. all weekend, it's been me in the middle of a million of other language conversations, and no one is talking in english. that wears me out, mentally, no doubt. and never knowing what im doing next, i've never had a problem with that. but i had somewheres i HAD to get today, (but i missed my deadline, obviously,or else i wouldnt be here writing this right now...... i'd be shopping in dae-jon for a suitcase like i really should be doing. rar.) igoo.

it was just too much, that i was so uninvolved in, once we got to the dong-gang camp. i wish we hadn't had to do that. we could have just stayed in gun-san and i could have visited dany and emilio's school, like monday. cuz that was fun. i didnt even want to go see the middle school kids.

but it was really busy. so much happened that was good too. so much so much so much. maybe too much, for just 3-4 days. first, i arrived at seocheon and emlio met me at the bus stop. we walked to the apartment to meet ji-eun and the indian girl, juhi. on the way we passed isaac's sandwich shop, and a girl was eating there, saw us stood up started waving her arms like mad. i ask emilio, do you know her? emilio- no do you know her? me- no....... so we keep walking, we get closer, and realize, it was one of the girls we went to middleschool with she's in highschool now, and changed so so so so so much, she could have been 1o years older, if she hadn't been waving to us i would never have known it was her. it was shocking! amazing what a hair cut can do for someone. when we got the apartment we met juhi, whose really nice. i dont think she'll get as much attention as the original exchange students got cuz she is very dark skinned, and well, thats really common. korea is more interested in light skinned foreigners, those who they are sure know english. thats terrible to say but its true. ok. when ji-euns mom came home we all went shopping at e-mart in gunsan. got 2 cute shirts, we ate at mcdonalds, then brought emilio back to chong-ho's house at around 6. it was raining when we got back, so me and juhi went outside to play in the rain. it was all fine, and the weather was so warm. juhi loves to talk about india, really, maybe more than necessary, and i told her some of the things about korea she might not realize since she's only staying for 6 weeks. we had sam-kyeop-sal for supper, (it has 3 layers!!!! haha. its pork, and my host dad tells me every singe time we eat it. and then he'll point them out to me. meat, fat, meat. uh, thank you. i figured it out the first time we ate it. so i warned juhi about that.) me and juhi stayed up really late talking, that was probably a bad idea. had i known before hand how busy i would be i would have gotten more sleep. im surprised they didn't order pizza at 11, it was a tradition when i use to live there. they got some the next day though, before i went to gunsan. seocheon has really good looking pizza delivery guys. always always. i've never gotten delivery pizza in nonsan, so i don't know about here..

on sunday i left with emilio to go to gunsan. we got there at 4:30 and had to go to the shi-nae at 5, where **shhhhh** emilio has a job. can't say where, cuz just saying he has a job, is more than he'd want me to write in a public blog. but we stayed there until dany adn the spanish teacher arived. then dany had to tell me all about her love life drama at her school, and everything. (my life here is sooo blan and boring compared to hers. im sure there'd be more drama all around if it was boys and girls school.) when she wasn't talking to me they were all talking in spanish. im never ever in my life, going to be interested in spanish after this year. i'll stick with german thanks. so by 11 we were all pretty um, tired... so the owner of the place emilio is working gave us a ride to the spanish teachers apartment, that him and emilio share. i stayed there sunday night. they both had to go to school at 7:30, but i slept in till 9 or so. 2 lil notes were waiting for me on the table when i did get up, "good morning lori...if you want something to eat ~~~ here are the house keys~~ " and stuff. it was cute. kkk

i met emilio and dany at the entrance to the school entrance at 11:30, and went to all the classrooms being introduced. its a lot of attention. but it was ok. i was with dany all day, meeting people, eating meals with her. people would go up to emilio, so how do you like dany's friend. he's like, waht?! shes my friend too! but no one believed him. wtf. "hey its MY FRIEND emilio!" when ever i saw him in a classroom. and of course all the girls, oh woooow so beautiful. such a small face. beautiful eyes. beautiful hair.~~~~ so on so on. haha.

i walk into the bathroom where dany is doing her hair, dany says "lori your so pretty" then mouths to me, "say 'i know'" so me- "i know" then from a stall

"**gasp**"

shiza. haha no no just kidding! i dont really think like that! cuz, the girl who over heard that, she had seen dany and told her to tell me, she thought 'i was really pretty.' dany told her, 'yah she knows shes pretty.' so it was like, 'i told you so' that made me look like a total ass. crap. thanks dany.

we were, me dany and emilio, all laughing about past memories, something about dong-gang, and us "hah....middleschool!" then later we were talking something about elementary school, and emilio "hah! elementary school!" so i guess we are friends from way back! even in the elementary school days. we went through elementary school and middleschool together.... we've been friends forever! haha.

all the teachers at the school were happy to meet me, they loved me. the students too of couse/
shin-young...song-yeol....tea-rim....ji-yang (danys host sister) aww man i hve to go back and see them. i forgot to bring my camera but i thought it would be ok cuz i was going to be there another day, and i could take pictures later. but it didnt happen cuz of friggen donggang camp, dammit. of course i'll see danys host sister again, cuz some time i'll go visit her in jeon-ju. maybe the 26. but staying at the school was too much fun. seeing everyone i've heard soo much about! finally being able to put faces to names, and such. it was good. me and dany got to spend some quality time together. the love of her life (tae-rim, aka teddy) had to help us get directions to where emilio works, (like we dont know how to get there. )but yah any excuse is a good excuse right? so ok, i still have the map its tooo too funny. there are these 2 circles, there 3 other ones further downt he page. wow, thanks teddy. these are fool proof. we just can't get lost with these! thanks!!
weird, cuz he's teaching dany and emilio guitar, and teddy in the usa was teaching me guitar! and teddy from donggang also knows guitar too!! i only know 3 teddy's and they all play guitar. it must be a teddy thing. kk

emilio had to go to work at 5, but me and dany didnt leave school until 8 then walked to the apartment and left from there around 9. but of course we got lost cuz the taxi driver didnt' knwo where nong-dam was. we waited around at emilios work place for the spanish teacher to get back from buying furniture, then just, stayed there until 11, and went back to the apartment again.

so tuesday morning, emilios dad comes to pick us up and we have to go to seocheon. He delivers us to KG who brings us to the camp site where we leave our stuff. then dany and the other indian girl, kesha, (whose not stayng at donggang, was only there for this festival,) changed into their dance clothing. they each did a traditional dance from their country. ive' seen dnys so many times but keshas was good too. it was longer, and not quite as upbeat, but it was interesting. i got pictures of both. the festival was soo soo hot! and me, unprepaired for going to a festival (what? what festival?? we have to go hwere?!!) hdant put any sunblock on. im what mom would call, a healthy pink. which means i look like i am a lobster, and could get sun cancer any day. no no chang-nan chang-nan, but it was miserable being in the sun all day, and being with koreans, mexicans and indians, who compeltely dont understand the concept of a real sunburn. we didn't stay long, later we went back to the camp and decided to stay the night, instead of going back to gunsan. later later, after supper and it had gotten dark they had a bonfire, and then a noraebang, and me and dany sang some songs but it was mostly dany singing, even if i knew the whole song it coudln't have heard me singing. but i dont care. then everyone stayed up playing korean games, and went to bed at 1 am. so lack of sleep, sunburn, pretty uncomfortable.

i had to get back to nonsan by noon. but that was too much to ask. first we couldnt leave the camp place until all the students had finished cleaing. but we didnt have to clean, we still had to be there. i only needed to shower and get to the bus stop before 12:30. thats it. so we leave by 10:30 perfect. but surprise! we have to stop by donggang and write up some complaints so KG can submit them cuz she wants to "chang eher school" its not like we were even bothered by the situations she wanted us to voice complaints about. so we had to write letters to the principle, which took untl 11:30. hey if we go to ji-euns house now i can still get to the bus stop by 12:30! no, we go drop emilio off, then bring me to my house. its just so many litle things, so many things keeping me from gettin to the bus stop on time. it was sooo sooo soo beyond aggrivating. i missed my 12:30 bus. no surprise. got the bus to buyeo, and arrived to nonsan at 2:40. but no one was home when i got home! cuz the left at 2:30!!! AHHHHHHHH i tried soo hard. it made me so aggrivated at EVERYONE. jajjungna!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

so jina called me and was like, 'why dont you take abus here?' well why cant you come back and get me?! its not far! errrr. dap-dap-hae. they brought ji-yoon instead. hmph. effers.

but, i did make an imprssion...
the owner of the place emilio called me just now, asking if i was coming back tomorrow.
well no...iam in nonsan. i can't just hop on a bus for a day in gunsan, but we planned that i will visit emilio next week, so i can visit then. koreans are too nice. it took me totally by surprise. the phone rings, i just tell them who ever they are looking for isnt home. "lori issoeyo?" (is lori there?) "an kyess-o- wait! thats me!" bong called today too, he hasn't had mid terms yet, but after some time he wants to visit nonsan before i leave. very nice of him. ive really got so much planned so i dont know if that will work. next weekend its on to seoul to visit julian. and i talked to kwang-hun, who stayes in seoul and maybe we will meet next weekend, and song-jin too.

my life, changing every day in every possible way, and in my dreams it never quite as it seems, never quite as it seems
Mood:  not sure
still, a little nervous about going home. its just. idno.

I thought this trip would be me "walking" on my own. standing on my own 2 feet, just in a different place. instead it was more like a high, it gave me a new perspective, and i've just been falling ever since. i've been pushed in one direction by that change of perception, as i change everything around me is changing too. what i become is just as new as my surroundings, but i'm "nearing the ground" and thats the end. now is when i really will have to start standing on my own feet and face the world, but these arent my feet im standing on any more. its not a new place, a new territory, that worries me now, but going back to an old territory with new, wobbily knees.

there it think that sums up pretty well about how i feel about going home. if you dont understand that you're a lost cause.


when i dream, usualy i never know im dreaming. often i wake up and i still dont now whether it was a dream or not. im just slow, or gullable like that maybe. but a few nights ago i had a dream i was back in the usa. i have a lot of dreams like that. but in this one i was like, but i cant be back yet! i still had a month left in korea! what did i do in that month! and obviously i couldnt come up with any memories. (wouldnt it have been cool if i did though?) so my dream self though, so this is a dream, and i must really still be in korea. now thats insane. its like my real self telling me, this is all not real, and i actually havent been born yet. so of course my dream self thought that was a lunitic idea. but then, i woke up and would you believe it? i was still in korea! how ironic

well my bus leaves for soechoen on 30 minutes, so i better head to the bus stop, buy my tickets and stuff.

I'm a snowball running, running down into the spring that's coming
Mood:  not sure
didn't do anything this weekend with everyone busy cramming for tests and everything.. and it looks like i dont have to go to school tomorrow either becuase they are haveing some other type of tests. the library will be closed so i have to find some other place to hang out. dont really want to attempt the quality time with the parents again. so maybe...hit up shi-nae or something. i did talk to emilio yesterday and we are planning to hang out next weekend till wednesday, since then my school has midterms and i dont have to go monday tuesday and wednesday. thursday my family plans to go shopping in dae-jon so i'm going to buy a suitcase there. i need to get a cheap one cuzi hav so many things i want to buy before i leave, and not a lot of money to do so. i forgot to ask yea-lim about the hanboks... so maybe ill email her. I don't really know whats going on with dany. we never talk any more. but then again, she's got another whole life going on in gunsan, what did i expect?

i'm soooo bored. everyone here studying all the time. if i had another exchange student or something id be better off i'm pretty sure. im really jealous dany and emilio got to go to the same school.

only 38 days until i go back to the usa. talked to tracy some last week. i think she's lucky she's got adianna, and shes jealous i never have to do any school work.

need to find soooomething to do! ah!

i'll try calling dany and emilio when i get home. just for someone to talk to. my mom and her rules though. she doesnt like me beng on the phone for more than 15 minutes. but i havent used the phon for like a month, so i've been saving up my minutes.

i moved my homepage to geocities because tripod is such a piece of crap, it frustrates me to no end. if you got to my blog you probably have been to my new site. is a lot easier and tripod was always giving me crap about my pictures taking up too much space. yahoo never has that problem. ^^

Do this! Do that! On track! Do me a favor and don't talk back!
Mood:  irritated
ahh!
my host mom is crazy. really. she is crazy.


shes like lori clean your room!

like i dont have ALL DAY when im doing NOTHING that i can clean my room. BUT NOOOOO

now! do it now!!!

cuz all i have to do is tidy my bed and clean my desk off

but i cant do that right either

im making everything dusty

i cant get anythingright

and she doesnt undersand me when i talk to her in english or try to explain why i'm not doing it right now! cuz its only 10 in the morning! the 1 hour i have for the computer and she decides that is when my room has to be clean.

so right now shes vacuuming my air cuz i make it dusty


and tahts the only thing i dont do when i clean my room is vacuum my damn air. and she thinks im soooo dirty

really all i have to do is tidy my bed, and stack my notebooks up on one side of my desk

my room isnt that friggen big!

does ji-eon have to clean her room? is her bed ever made? hell no. does seh vacuum her own air? NO CUZ SHE DOESNT MAKE DUST LIKE THE DAMN AMERICAN DOES. Im a dust machine thats what i am.

well my mom feels like it is her duty to wak eup and jsut start cleaning, and everyone else shoud follow suit when she does it

like i had just woken up

and she does it every day!

how much dust can i possible make in one day@?!?!?!!?


now im gonna go lock myself in my, currently clean of american produced dust, room.. and make some more. :)

important fire drill instructions: RUN LIKE HELL
Mood:  on fire
today, 6 block we had "fire prevention class." a fire drill. all my classmates asked if we had that in the usa. suuuure, like every month. but our firedrill is pretty unimpressive compared to theirs. they have one once a year, and its more like a skit or something. we just get hurded outside, regardless of the weather, wait for a few minutes and go back inside. but here!

first they made all their announcements and then the siren rang. all the girls startes screaming and running for the stairs. nothing like our "please stay calm and composed as you exit the building" type crap. it was fun. ^^. there were fire trucks waiting outside, and attached to one of the walls was a smoking, something. very advanced firedrills, ok? we all gathered by the wall along the entrance and waited. when everyone was outside some of the teachers rushed back in with stretchers for someone who was "injured". haha it was all too funny. since the school hallways is covered in windows we see the teachers run up 2 flights of stairs and book it into one of the classroom, then emerge with our wounded comrad. *round of appluase please* yay for your hero teachers who risk their lives daily for our benefit. heh heh heh. the ambulance (with green flashing lights...odd to see for me) came speeding up and took the injured student. 2 firefighters went up the the 4th floor and started hosing down the roof where there was another stratigically placed smoking thingy. they bravely extinguished a flaming box set in the middle of the yard too, with their handy fire extinguishers. i didn't have my camera, cuz i was unaware they had a fire drill today. but i took some pics with ara's cell phone and she'll email those to me some time hopefully. it was too much fun for a fire drill, really.


now, last weekend. i didn't hreally have anything planned. on saturday ji-na went to school, but came back for lunch with some friends and we went out to eat a a tak-kalbi restaurant. (chicken kalbi) its sooo good!! we met some other friends there, and more and more st. paul students kept coming in. it was like a reunion. ^^ tak- kalbi is pretty expensive though, so its probably nt going to be an every weekend thing. after lunch ji-na had to head back to school until 7 or so. i spent my day sleeping, and writing emails and stuff. haven't heard from dany or emilio since 2 weekends ago. i relaly wish we all went to the same school. its so boring here most of the time, especially with eveyrone studying 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. if there was another exchange student here, like if they had sent rose here too, i could have someone to hang out with after school. they are all studying and i jsut go home and do nothing. it might be better if i just stayed in class with them, since there's nothing else i can do. take walkes, but alone, its not fun. i really need to make friends from the other highschools where they get out of school at 5. then i could meet up wth them after school! I spend quality time with my host mom, and she's one cool gal, but its difficult to really visit with her, like...with nothing else going on.

ok, on sunday: talked to some friends in the usa on aol for a little bit. so nice. theres no one herei can really have a conversation with.mostly i jsut watch and listen. im learning the korean culture, and understanding it, but im still not really involved in it. im much more a part than i was when i first got here, but i could never "become korean" like they told me to do at the rotary meetings. its difficult to explain, so i wont.

at 12:30 i met yea-lim, i-sul, han-a, and jessica ..cant remember her korean name. oops. we went to eat at a steak restuarant in down town nonsan. very fun, a lot of walking. there's a lotteria (the korean version of a mcdonalds, i think its cleaner, maybe more expensive) near the steak restaurant so we walked there afterwards and yea-lim bought everyone ice creams. this time of year the cherry blossoms are so so beautiful, probaby like they are in dc, don't know cuz I'VE NEVER BEEN THERE. they have a cherry blossom festival that makes the belfast fair look like massive. but the street was lined with cherry trees all in full bloom, and it was GORGEOUS!! i wish i had taken my camera, cuz my host mom wouldnt take me yesterday and i'm doubtful she will today either. i could walk there, but its quite a hike and walking alone in korea, if your a foreigner is an experience all on its own. still makes me uncomfortable all the stares, so i'd rather walk with a friend. all the friends are in school, so it doesnt happen. :( but my host mom did take me out yesterday to a middle school a block from my house where they had cherry blossoms in bloom. i got a few pictures, and not many of me. my host mom took 2 pictures, and askes "ok done?" suuuuuure.
whoops i'm getting ahead of myself. back to the cherry blossom festival with yea-lim.there were some tents to sell things. my friends got me a key chain, really nice, with the face of a protector god of buddha. very korean. ^^ they are so nice....gotta love them. walking back we met some foreigners. maybe middle eastern, indian or something. i try not to stare at other foriegners, cuz i know how akward the koreans make me feel when they do. but there were about 7 of them in a group and they all stared and waved and said hi when we walked by. see, even foreigners stare at foreigners. we all walked back to teh school, because the 4 other girls all live in the dorms, and i walked home. all that walking drained me, so i went home and slept the rest of the day.

last week. i'm going backwards, so you gotta pay attention. ok last week: we had volley ball on friday, yay! i had on the 2 bracelets yea-min and ye-il got me in india, and one of them totally shattered during gym class. it was so sad, but i still have one and a wooden elephant they got me too. i saved some of the pieces and am going to put them in my art journal r something. i do feel bad about it, and i'll be more careful with my otehr one. now i only wear my copper bracelet to school, since its harder to break.

um, so thats all for now.
will report back later, and put my exciting fire drill pictures up as soon as i get them from ara.

-rori-

she only drinks coffee at midnight, when the moment is not and and her timing...unusual
Mood:  bright
today was so great, i mean, i needed a day like this. it almost makes up for a lousy last week.

but before i get into it.......[!]

ummm lets see...
sunday when i got home, i put a new contact in first thing. then by that night it was all flipped over so i had to take it out. but i could still see. strangest thing. and i realized i still had the new contact in. the flipped one was the one i thougth i lost. it had been on the bck of my eyelid or something. ewwwwwwwww, but at least i know my brain didnt swallow it or something.

last weekend the nonsan strawberry festival was happening. we went sunday night, the last night of it but it was realy boring. there were like 3 lines of tents that were selling things and a lot of food tents. no strawberries though. what? i thought this was a strawberry festival!!! no but we have squid and veggie korean style pancakes. um...... no i'm full thanks. a russian guy came up and started talking to me, thinking i was also russian. he said i looked like i could be russian, which is a compliment, because koreans at least, think russians are so beautiful. at first i thought he was korean until i saw he had blue eyes. then i assumed american. but i couldnt understand a word he was saying. well thats cuz he was speaking russian! hah! i know english, i haven't lost it completely!

so monday.....
i went to school late, 8:30 instead of 7:30. first thing mr soh approaches me in the hallway, i'm thinking, "crap...busted...." but he just wanted to say if i ever have a problem again i can just come to him. "just uhh.... make...uh ....yourself at home" sometimes he reminds me of porkey pig. hahaha. what happened to problem student i was becoming?? well anyways, IM NOT A PROBLEM STUDENT! IM A GOOD STUDENT!!!! kkkkkkkkk
monday was good, and it finaly felt like things were looking up. we had computer class and i got an email from rose and one from dany. ^^ computer class, gym class, prayer class, [k not so sure about this prayer class, but the nun that teaches it is soooo soo nice. so that class gets a thumbs up] and 'empty' class are all good changes from the basic stuff where i just sit there and day dream. i dont understand any of that so i only do work out of my korean book, but since i finished it...class is pretty dull. hopefully KG will send me book 2. im writing her an email requesting it right now...actually. so yah, any break i get from sitting and staring out the window is good by me. after i get home from school, around 5:15, its usually really boring. mom is sometimes home but she goes to her room, and i go to mine. i play guitar a lot, and i'm getting pretty good. not that im one to brag, since compared to any of my friends in the US who play, im terrible. but hey at least i havent given up yet! monday night when i got home i played guitar for a while but was bored. ji-na was in school, ji-eon was in school, and ji-yoon is in the dorms ^^ [!!] so i took a walk, but it didnt do much good. i walked to school, and this was at like 8 at night. but everyone was busy studying so i didnt stay. they are studyin extra hard now because may 1,2, and 3, are their major tests. so i walked to shi-nae (town center). i didnt see anyone i knew. of course! everyone i know goes to st. paul's! and they are studying. not all schools study that hard though, and there were plenty of highschool students out and about. ji-na promised she would introduce me to her friends who to to different schools so i will have someone to hang out with. yay!

people from other schools know of me though. thats expected. its not every day an american goes to a school in their neighborhood. actualy this is the first time ever and american has come to study at a highschool in nonsan. so word gets around. today walking home at 5 i passed several groups of students from the boys highschool up the road. they stare and whisper and some say hi nice to meet you, but i've never stopped to talk to any of them. but today when i passed one particular group they say hi! and then whisper among themselves..."shshshshshsh lori. shshsh lori? shshshshshs lori. " .... do i know you? kkkkkkkkkkk

my home room teacher said it was fine if i didnt come to school until 8:30. but no later cuz classes start then. before its just exercise. so now i dont even wake up until 7:30. oh thats the life. ^^

i get out of school at 3, go to the library or something. regular classes go until 6 and students HAVE TO stay and study until 11. most sneak out earlier like...10. the boys highschool we pass on our way to school ji-na says is "really bad." they only study until 5 every day. ONLY 5!!!!! what MORONS!!

i don't even ask what that must make me. just not gonna go there. but since i'm american i'm not judged on my brains, only looks......

tuesday night me and my host mom and sister went to play bad mitten at ji-eons school. its mostly all retired people there, but its fun. i owe my mom an ice cream, cuz i lost but ehh, ice creams cheap. the teacher from dae-gon highschool was there and invited me back to the boys highschool (the really smart highschool, not the one near my house) this saturday. i'm planning on meeting yea-lim for lunch, but it shouldnt interfere. last time i went at 4 so probably i'll do the same this weekend. ji-na can't go with me, and i dont really want to go alone. it was really intimidating last time.

everyday after school i meet yea-lim at the library because all the students are suppose to clean for like 20 minutes.

ok so today. i think wednesdays are defninitely my favorite. we have computer and gym! woohoo! we played volley ball outside today. the weather was excellent, but i got a sunburn. i always forget wonderful sunshine means ugly sunburn. gotta bring sunblock to school now. but volleyball makes me happy. volleyball=love. me and 9 other students who can actually play started a game. then after school instead of using the comptuers in the library i went out and started another game with the 2-6 class that had gym. they weren't quite as good at it as my class was but it was fun. all day was fun. its like everyone was smiling and waving and saying hi. all my normal and very boring classes went by really fast. lunch was good. the sun was shining and i was happy. and i have plans for this weekend. yay.

i hold no expectations for tomorrow, but i am so relieved today went well. really really needed that. so now [i am happy]. i'll go play guitar for a little while.

-rori-

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

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

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-