Don't Vote

So, via Sam, I came across this site, where I scored 235 out of 350. Basically, I couldn't get any of the Americans, beyond the biggies. However, I got all the entertainment types and all the international figures, including both the Koreans. Go me!

However, I can't vote in American elections anyway, so I don't think I'm gonna lose any sleep... It was a pretty amusing test.

American Thanksgiving, one week late

Ladies' Night last Thursday was wild, cause the soldiers all had Friday off for Thanksgiving. We started the night at Don Valley, for a goodbye dinner for YJ. I didn't want to admit that it was two days from her actually leaving, but that it was. Had one of those "vegetarian" moments, when poor Joel ended up with bibimbap with meat on it. Generally though, the rest of us consumed great quantities of meat very appreciatively. Joel and Debbie and I went on to do Ladies' Night, starting at Helios, where everyone seemed to be far drunker than I was gonna get (free drinks having finished) and busy pinching my ass, which is highly annoying. On the walk there we saw a ton of soldiers having a street fight, pursued by whistle-wielding Korean police officers and the MPs running up the road to try and difuse. I managed to lose people, find more people, randomly wander around, get refered to as reparations again and basically decided I was fed up and I wanted the Loft, dammit! So to the Loft we went. Watched two friends fight rather loudly about American politics and a rather interesting idea was suggested to me, one I sort of regret not taking up. (cryptic, yes!) Ended up wandering around Itaewon with Susan and meeting up with an old friend and then finally calling it a night.

I was up early Friday, not really by choice. Friday night YJ, Laura, Tommy, and I went to Ivy to have a couple of drinks. Then it was back to YJ's to help her pack and hang out. It was a sad goodnight, but with an amusing element: a drunken man was sleeping in the hallway, snoring very, very loudly.

The next morning, Laura, YJ and I got breakfast and had coffee at my place until YJ had to take off to the airport. I now have a sofa bed and a dresser and a vaccuum and a ton of kitchen stuff that I didn't have before. I'd rather have YJ back!

Saturday night was Carne Station for Amber and Sean's last night. Joel and Debbie made it was well. We went to TinPans and I bumped into someone I haven't seen in months. Ended up hanging out with him at Stompers for a bit. Ahhhh, Stompers. It's like nowhere else!

Sunday was once again a day of rest, followed by dinner at Geckos. This was punctuated by an annoying guy who bought himself flowers (?) and ended up leaving in a huff and Jane beating a guy at darts in her first ever game.

The weekend begins tomorrow night and looks fairly promising. I will be lunching at Thai Orchid, doing some randomness Satuarday night, and no doubt chowing down at Geckos come Sunday.

I like my routine. I just like it to occur in foreign countries, apparently.

:(

I had to remind myself that YJ isn't in her apartment anymore, cause she's back in the states. I knew that, but I forgot, and it made me sad to remember. Someone has already moved into her apartment (loudly, at 2am!). That's the problem with being an expat. You make friends with other expats and such folks are always coming and going... sigh.

Not as old as I thought...

So, with the aching ankle set off by damp weather and falling asleep in random places, I was starting to feel rather old...

Then I got a hickie. Well, a few. What am I, 13???

Go ahead and laugh.

Considering how bizarre Family Circus got in the end, this might make more sense...

This site pairs random Nietzsche quotes with random Family Circus cartoons, so that the quotes become the captions. I had to click a few times to get really amusing ones, but it was well worth it...

All You Need is Love

Today one of my classes had as their homework to write a journal entry about what they would like to get as a birthday gift and why.

Mike said: "I want to friend make for my birthday because I want Love."

Gay Rights... Pass it on

"Why is it that, as a culture, we are more comfortable seeing two men holding guns than holding hands?" - Ernest Gaines

We would like to know who really believes in gay rights on LiveJournal. There is no bribe of a miracle or anything like that. If you truly believe in gay rights, then repost this and title the post as "Gay Rights". If you don't believe in gay rights, then just ignore this. Thanks.

Pass it around.

Smart, Aren't I?

Edited to remove smilies and protect the innocent.

sheesh says:
yoyoyo
Amanda says:
yo
Amanda says:
fucking bandaid is making typing hard
Amanda says:
so annoying
sheesh says:
gimp
Amanda says:
that is right
Amanda says:
damn some guy got killed in lebanon
Amanda says:
might be civil war
Amanda says:
look at me watching cnn
Amanda says:
and being all smart sounding
sheesh says:
u so smart
Amanda says:
i know
Amanda says:
*preens*
Amanda says:
all the rest of your crew coming out?
Amanda says:
cause i don't have any good stories for carlya to laugh at
sheesh says:
tell her bout 40 year old
sheesh says:
*censored to protect the innocent*
Amanda says:
lol
Amanda says:
you just told ME that
sheesh says:
i sent that to u
Amanda says:
wrong amanda!!!!
sheesh says:
i was trying to send it to her
Amanda says:
lol
sheesh says:
i am so blond
sheesh says:
she said u r very uncool for not having any stories
sheesh says:
uncool
Amanda says:
tell her when she has dance move #8
Amanda says:
i will have a new story
Amanda says:
my god. have you seen the lotte world christmas commercial?
Amanda says:
it is truely frightening
sheesh says:
no i missed that shit
Amanda says:
omg
Amanda says:
you have to see it
Amanda says:
it's fucking scary

Knowing

"Is it possibly, finally, for one human being to achieve perfect understanding of another?

In the dark, I thought about blue tissues and patterned toilet paper and beef and green peppers. I had lived with her all this time, unaware how much she hated these things. In themselves they were trivial. Stupid. Something to laugh off, not make a big issue out of. We'd had a little tiff and would have forgotten about it in a couple of days.

But this time was different. It was bothering me in a strange new way, digging at me like a little fish bone caught in the throat. Maybe-just maybe-it was more crucial than it seemed. Maybe this was it: the fatal blow."

Haruki Murakami, "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle"

You know, there were many things that lead to Alan and I breaking up, but one of them is nicely articulated here. I never quite understood how he could have lived with me for so long, been with me for almost 7 years, and known me so little. And it isn't just that I changed in Korea. Before my email account got hijacked, I went through a bunch of old, saved emails to various friends. This basic frustration had been part of our relationship for years. Hindsight is an amazing thing. As is the power of the little things to niggle away until you can't ignore them anymore.

Mom Meal of my Own

I decided to cook at home tonight instead of eating out or ordering Korean food or whatever other random ways I usually feed myself.

Cost of meal:

About $14, though there are some leftovers
An hour of cooking
A sink full of dishes
Two bleeding fingers
Several bandaids

Benefits:

The chicken was good
I ate green things that were steamed
I had sweet potatoes, right near someone's thanksgiving, though not my own

The conclusion? I like cooking, but my fingers don't appreciate the result of my klutziness in the kitchen. And bibimbap is waaaaaaaay cheaper at $4 and no effort on my part...

Interesting Thought of the Day

all of my life, i have been going about my life doing my own thing, imagining that no one sees me except the people who i want to see me or who i notice seeing me. i am so visible here in seoul. and i was just as visible before, i just didn't think about it.

Inconsequentialness and some Pondering

Sometimes the oddest things irritate me. Suddenly the feeling of my shirt under my right armpit is driving me fucking nutters. No idea why.

Yesterday I had the most backhanded compliment in some time. I wore my hair in a braid because a student asked me to, and really, if I can't spend 2 minutes doing something simple to make someone happy, i'd be a rather miserable human being. However, my boss raved about the braid, in such a way that it seems the inevitable conclusion is that he thinks the way I usually wear my hair is shite. It was highly amusing.

I went out for Boribap with YJ, Laura, Hanna and one of Laura's friends who was in Korea visiting. The food was yummy and it was nice to eat something green for a change. Then we got coffee and headed back to our 'hood.

Tonight was a night for meat, though, as we went for Dondae. J-squared was there, talking all about Native Americans introducing kimchee to the settlers (it isn't easy to produce turkey dinners for holidays here, which is rather sad), and SO WAS R2J2!!! Didn't ever expect to see him again. He very much seemed to be on something and spent most of the dinner not eating, drinking a bit of soju and looking rather ashamed. He said almost nothing and god knows, I had no idea what to say to him. How's it going doesn't exactly work in this particular situation. He left at one point, couldn't find the door, and later returned. It was all super bizarre.

Laura idly commented on whether there was anything to do to help him. It occurs to me that living in Korea is really not for those with any serious problems, but often those are the exact people who come here. There are plenty of people here running away from things and some of them bring with them problems rather large for the limited support system of the few foreigners work and socializing throws you together with. I mean, I haven't a clue how to access drug addiction services in Korea, or to get in contact with his parents, and what's more, I am not overly inclined to do so on the basis of a two night aquaintanceship. Even my good friends here, for whom I would certainly do whatever I was able, are people whose parents I know very, very little about in terms of contacting them. I suppose that is the life of an expat in many ways, as your life now is seldom tied very strongly to the life or lives you have led before your arrival upon these particular shores.

I thought briefly that perhaps I was one of those who ran away from something, but I think in my case it is more that I ran back to something that I wasn't in the slightest interested in leaving, truth to be told.

I am reading a fantastic book right now. It grabbed me on the first page, with the first line, in fact:

"When the phone rang I was in the kitchen, boiling a potful of spaghetti and whistling along with an FM broadcast of the overture to Rossini's The Thieving Magpie, which has to be the perfect music for cooking pasta."

Interestingly, I didn't think I would like it at all. The book in question is "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle" by Haruki Murakami. I have heard a ton about "Kafka on the Shore" and even seen it used in several places but have never bought it. When I consider why, basically it boils down to the fact that I mentally associate him with Banana Yoshimito, whose books I didn't like, simply because they are both Japanese and write books that are supposed to be a bit dreamlike. But Laura lent it to me and I am so glad she did. It is wonderful already and I am only two chapters in. It feels like one of those books I should own. It feels like one of those books I should read with a notebook next to me at all times, to write down all the quotes that are going to strike me every other page or so.

I have over 2400 duplicate songs on my iTunes. This is what indiscriminate downloading will do.

The Saga of R2J2

So, a friend's coworker has been fired. The path to this firing is particularly amusing though...

I first met him the Friday night of Halloween weekend. He managed to fall out of a chair for no reason, drop numberous lit cigarrettes out of his mouth and fling his eyeglasses across a bar. It turned out later that he was on speed, which kinda helped me understand the references to the PhD programme he'd dropped out of, the numerous credit cards and their ridiculous balances, and the other randomness.

Then, he managed to miss his visa run to Japan. And to get arrested for suspected dealing. And finally to not turn up to work, leave his door unlocked, and be found by his employer in a drugged state.

Farewell, R2J2. You were amusing while you lasted.

Weekend Ramblings

I do believe that the work week was invented to help people recover from their weekends. I never, ever seem to sleep enough on the weekends. I love to sleep. I want sleep.

It has been a good weekend. Thursday night was Ladies' Night in Itaewon, as usual, but for once I went to Helios (and the Loft later, of course). It was a cool night as I got to see a ton of people - first Debbie, then danced with Sheila and co., then saw Val and Reena at the Loft, bumped into Annie, Daniel, and Amanda. Met an entire Brazilian soccer team.

Friday was a very test intensive day at work, which is always a nice break. One of the kids wrote as a homework sentece "Julie and Amanda share new ideas" and I was very touched. Ellie is insisting that I wear my hair in a ponytail, so I'll have to remember today. Teaching is pretty random but fun.

Friday night I met up with Sheila and co. at 66, though I hadn't intended to head out. Ended up dancing in Q-Vo again and went for breakfast in Itaewon. Spent Saturday with a friend, giving myself only enough time to have a quick shower before heading to La Tavola with YJ for the best food ever. I love pasta soooooo much. We went to 3 Alley and there was a social experiment with an annoying song on a jukebox three times, though sadly we weren't able to see the fruits of that particular labor. Then we went to Geckos and bumped into the Gay Boyfriends and Sheila and her crew and any number of other people. Next up was 66 (the Playboy Mansion DJ being rather on the pricey side), where we bumped into the Julie brothers. A brief sidetrip to Tin Pans and we ended up in Stompers. Handkerchief girl and her posse were there, amusingly dancing to things like that Chicken Noodle soup song, all doing the same dance. Is this cool? I think not, anyway. It was a laugh for me though. Sadly, Stompers at 5am requires you to have rather a lot of drink in you to fully appreciate it, and I lacked that. On the way home there was an amusing exchange at the Mandu tent about some dukboki sauce and the individual wearing it. There was even some yelling out of a cab window, which very much amused both myself and the cab driver.

Sunday was a day of much needed rest. But then I also wandered to Itaewon to meet another Gay Boyfriend and too eat the best, most delicious caesar salad in Korea. Met up with many friends once again.

And thus we arrive at Monday morning. I rather need to get ready and head to the post office. I also want breakfast. Eggs. Yummy.

I must floss, like, ten times a day...

I think I am Weird

On the basis of my friends. In the past couple of days, I have:

*called a friend at 1am on a monday morning and invited her to go singing with me, and she got dressed and came.

*seen pictures of a friend dressed in a pilgrim hat in every single picture she took at plymouth rock.

*learned that another friend ordered the pilgrim hat on the internet to ensure that C's wish to wear a goofy hat in photos wouldn't go unfulfilled. after all, we can't just leave goofy hat wearing on vacations to chance... or can we?

Thanks to all who matter

"Be who you are and say what you feel. Because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind." Dr. Seuss

Books and Travel, two of my vices

It has taken me some time to get around to chancing upon this, but I love it. INFLUENCES: GLOBE-TROTTERS' FAVORITES; Tomes That Can Trigger a Writer's Wanderlust.

How about a cold beer after work?

Or, a post about work.

One of my students, the cutest girl ever, who's in about grade 6 or so, asked me this when I entered the classroom on Friday. I am sure the look on my face was comical. She had a Korean-English phrasebook which is sure to continue to provide me with a great deal of hilarity. She was reading through it as I checked everyone's homework and suddenly said, "Selfish! What a great word!" Then she asked me how to pronounce assassination. Julie is one of my favourites because she so visibly loves to learn. She is always looking up new vocabulary words and she loves to talk to her teachers and other students in English.

I was watching a video on YouTube by a guy about why he gets out of bed in the morning all about his son. Beyond that is was cute and made me feel all weepy, it did make me ponder the question for myself. There was an interesting response by a younger guy that it's basically just to see what happens in the course of the day, kinda like checking your email to see what's there. And I thought that was very apt, but then I was posting this about Julie and realised...

Students like her are why I like my job. And one of the major reasons I get out of bed in the morning.

So Cute

Crazy Weekend

Well, perhaps not super crazy. But crazy fun, at the very least.

Thursday night turned out fairly crazy. Everybody was at the Loft and then I stayed out super late cause a friend was gonna stay out and go straight to work. Yep, that's the kind of country it is. And then, crazily, I decided to turn on my computer when I got home...

Friday night, YJ and I went for some Outback, thus beginning my weekend of bad food consumption. I am not sure that the side salad makes up for the cheesy fries, basically. Then we met Debbie to hit up an army doctors party. Was what I imagine American frat parties are like, but there were some fun people to chat with. We went to Hongdae, to 66 and Stompers and onwards to Sinchon, where I was so damn tired that once again I feel asleep. We met some cool people there - a Korean girl with the cutest british accent, another girl stuck babysitting a very drunken soldier. Tommy is the cutest ever! They went on to have doughnuts for breakfast, but I didn't have the stamina and headed home at 8.30.

Saturday was fun too. We headed to Puca Puca to have some coffee and chat and then met Lisa in a Family Mart. Was just about to call her and find out where she was when we randomly bumped into her. After some crowdedness at TinPans (helping geeky white boys dance on bars since 1999) we went to Q-Vo. I randomly picked up a Korean guy, which is certainly not something that happens often. After hours of dancing to cool music, and watching a guy dragged out by his belt by the bouncers, we went for food in the tent opposite 66. A plate of random seafood and an ommellette. Tasty.

Then today. I finished off my pizza (ordered on Saturday for its greasiness) and ended up in Itaewon. Bumped into Amber and crew and joined them in an Irish bar, went to meet Debbie and her friends at Gecko's Garden, YJ joined for some food and we headed to Geckos. Then the evening got wild. Sheila is such great fun and I was in a singing mood, so upon arriving in our hood, I called Laura who got dressed and joined us in some norae bang craziness! Thus, it is 3.47am on a Sunday night and I have had the most amazingly fabulous weekend. WooHoo!

What I've been reading...

I had a two book theme going on, sort of.

First, "What do Women Want?" by Erica Jong. Jenni borrowed this from me ages ago and said it wasn't much good. She'd be right. I thought it was going to be quite feminist, but rather wasn't. The title page maybe should have had me guessing that-four pics, bread, roses, sex, power. Now, I suspect I'm in a minority of people who even get the bread and roses references, cause none of the people I pointed it out to had heard of it. You can learn more on Wikipedia. Then, the sex is illustrated by a condom. Something that men use. Hmmmmm. And power by a high-heeled shoe. Uh huh.

So, I wasn't loving it. The best bit for me was the end where she writes about trips to Italy, cause I love Italy and want to retire there to a villa and drink too much red wine. There were some chapters about literature and porn and she wrote a lot about Lolita, which I really should get around to reading.

"Every life decision I have made - from changing jobs to changing partners to changing homes - has been taken with trepidation. I have not ceased being fearful, but I have ceased to let fear control me. I have accepted fear as a part of life, specifically the fear of change, of the unknown."

This is my life! I changed all three back in April and it was certainly very scary. It has totally paid off, though. I have a tendancy to think that if something scares me, it is probably the thing I should go and do. Generally this line of thinking has paid off, with that one big, messy notable exception. But then, life is messy. If it isn't, you probably aren't living it.

"We love people, ultimately, for their humanity; not because of their perfection but in spite of their imperfections."

Something to remember when dealing with the ex. His imperfections were once why I loved him, not the annoyances I find them today. Breathe. Forgive. Understand.

"I forget how she died. I'm sure I deliberately blank out her story because I loathe stories about young women who die at tender ages. I would rather see monuments to women who survived their first loves and went on to have several more."

I like this idea very, very much.

"What I require of a book is that it kidnap me into its world. Its world must make the so-called real world seem flimsy. Its world must trigger the nostalgia to return. When I close the book, I should feel bereft.

How rare this is, and how grateful I am to find it. The utter trust that exists between reader and author is like the trust between lovers. If I feel betrayed by the author, I will never surrender again. I must believe in the author's honesty in order to be swept away."

I love it!

*********************

Can You Keep a Secret? by Sophie Kinsella. My love of British chick lit is my dirty little secret.

November 11th

To a Canadian, November 11th means Remembrance Day. The minute of silence at 11.11, the school assemblies singing "Blowing in the Wind" and reciting "In Flander's Fields", buying dozens of poppies because they never stay on my jackets and being poked with the little pin, and a couple of years as a Scout leader with ceremonies at the Cenotaph and hot chocolate after at the Legion. Listening to the "Last Post" never fails to send shivers down my spine.



In Flanders Fields
By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)
Canadian Army

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.



In Korea, November 11th is a holiday with an entirely different set of spots. It's Pepero Day. Basically, there are cookie things that are tall and straight. 11/11 looks like four Pepero, which inspired an entire holiday dedicated to exchanging cookies with everyone you know! I got some from my students, very cute. You are especially supposed to give them to girlfriends/boyfriends and so there are tons of elaborate packaged ones with teddy bears and other such things. The displays are something else, I tell ya.

It's a funny world...

...where you can keep an eye on your ex through his blog.

After ladies' night on Thursday, I came home and had a bizarre drunken impulse to check my email and ended up IMing the ex. Or soon to be ex.

He has been upset about the fact that something he did might be the topic of discussion between myself and someone else. And I keep telling him that frankly, I don't find him that fascinating to be talking about him all the time, but that he certainly doesn't get to tell me what I can and can't say to my friends. Even when we were together I wouldn't have tolerated him telling me what topics were allowable and what topics weren't. I certainly won't be letting my soon-to-be exhusband to tell me what to do in any way. Which isn't to say that I intend to discuss this particular subject at all, but it annoys me that he thinks he can constantly harrass me on IM about what he wants and that I'm going to listen. I mean, entitlement much?

You know, if we could wipe the slate clean of our exes, I am sure some of us would. I don't really need to. I was the one who left and it was the best decision I have made in some time and I'm super happy with my life right now. But, his actions do still sometimes impact me. And so I may well discuss him and what he does. That's life after a breakup, I guess.

But the most amusing part? He blogs all about values and how his are just fine. Which is all well and good, I suppose. I think his values are just fine. But I think mine are too, and I am sure it was meant to be a dig at me. However, my ex should remember that it wasn't me that got involved in the Jerry Springer-esque situation that he now wants me to never talk about. Dude, get out of the kitchen if you can't handle the heat. You started this, it does sort of impact me, and I'll discuss it with whoever I choose. And you can stop harrassing me on IM about it and anything else.

Yes, I've said I am quite willing to be friendly. But you have yet to ever be friendly towards me and I'm not gonna be a doormat.

Dancing on Tables, Here I Come...

Ooh oh yeah yeah, Oh what a night
It's ladies night

This is your night tonight,
Everything is going to be alright
This is your night tonight,
C'mon girls

Girls, we've all got one
A night that's special everywhere
From New York to Hollywood
It's ladies night and girl
The feeling's good

Romantic lady, ooh oh yeah, single baby
Mm sophisticated mama (woooooh)
Come on you disco baby, yeah, yeah
Stay with me tonight

If you hear any noise
It ain't the boys, it's ladies night, shhh, uh huh
Come on girls

Gonna step out ladies night
Steppin' out ladies night

Oh what a night (Oh what a night)

On disco lights your name will be seen
You can fulfill all your dreams
Party here, party there, everywhere
This is our night, ladies
You got to be there

Oh no!

As if it wasn't bad enough that i randomly capitalize, don't punctuate well, can't be arsed spell checking and write random drivel...

I think I need an intervention. Though I do like cats...

Poor boys

What my student Natalie thinks of her male classmates.

Super Chef

Amanda had mastered the art of Asian cooking.

Naomi perhaps doesn't think much of my cooking! But I loved getting mail :) And I haven't sunk so low as to rely on pot noodles for nourishment...

Bling

Ages ago, Candace requested a pic of my silver earring collection. I am slow like molasses, but here it is at last.

Pronto!

This demo is highly amusing.

Thanks to Lisa for the heads up. *snicker*

How to Be a Good Friend

Be available in the middle of the night to taste test brownies.

It is an onerous and difficult task of friendship, I know, but I am ready and willing to provide this kind of key friendship support.

Ditz Central

You have to plug in the heater for it to work! That explains a lot...

Snow!

It snowed tonight! Granted, it was some pretty wet, insubstantial snow, but winter is here. Sadly, I haven't made the mental shift to winterwear yet, so it was a very, very chilly walk home. I wasn't even wearing socks! My room is toasty warm though and I made soup and a toasted tuna sandwich. Yum.

Aging!

Has anyone else noticed that there is a key angle to pouring juice in such a way that it doesn't splash back and make a mess but that you never manage to figure it out till the glass is full? Or is that only me?

I had a brilliant weekend. Thursday I had dinner with YunJin at her place and ended up staying in. Friday we did Outback and then I went into Itaewon solo. Chatted with Lynn and then with B, the boy who won't leave me alone! Well, I think actually Friday night has solved things, but I was getting very annoyed by all the texts and phone calls and just generally too much attention from someone I really wasn't interested in. So, I joined Daniel and Alex and crew on the balcony at Geckos, where Daniel's cute Korean boy offered me some swigs out of a bottle of tequila. I declined at first, because tequila and I do not get along. We just don't. By the time Amanda and Debbie arrived and we ended up dancing at Queen, that resolve went right out the window on the basis of cheapness. And that I do kinda like tequila, it just doesn't much like me the next day. Anyway, Debbie is fantastic and we randomly introduced ourselves to a boy sitting by himself and chatted with him. Danced with beautiful gay boys, which is such fun. You get to shake the booty with someone who won't try and pinch it! Randomly ended up in King's Club for some more dancing and then in a very dead Loft, as it must have been 5am or something by then.

Saturday's main plan was to hit up Carne Station at 8.30, thanks to Laura's amazing organizational skills. However, Tim was coming down from Osan and there was traffic and we were meeting at my place and then I told Debbie to meet me in front of the Pizza Hut that no longer exists (I knew that but somehow forgot at a key moment.) We had to wait for her to meet us, since Carne is hard to find, what with the sign only being in Korean. Basically, I was very late. I am the type of girl who will be late for her own funeral, though, so no surprises there! After the all you can eat and drink extraveganza, we stopped at 66 and met up with Lisa. She friended me on myspace because she's from Palgrave and she is mighty cool! Went to Stompers, had a blast; went to the Sexy Pig (cause if your meat isn't sexy, why would you eat it?), fell asleep! I hadn't even had that much to drink!

Then today, I went into Itaewon to have a quick lunch with Tim before he headed back to Osan. I ended up with dinner plans with Val and crew and YunJin. So, I bought a book and figured I'd read in Starbucks and have a much needed coffee while I waited. The next thing you know I was napping in a comfy chair! I have managed to fall asleep twice in 12 hours in a public place!!! What am I, 80? We ended up at Don Valley for some BBQ, so I've also done that 3 times this weekend, if we can count me snoring in Sexy Pig as having done BBQ. It was a very amusing meal. Then chatted with peeps at Geckos (using slang here, folks, not referencing bizarre American marshmellow snacks) and we all sat down and ended up doing a crossword in the latest K-Scene replacement mag. Again, how old am I exactly?

It was a great weekend, all in all. I love socializing and by that I don't so much mean boozing. Just like blethering away with people, friends, random strangers, whatever. And I do love dancing.

Did you know that your thumb is the same length as your nose? Cause it is.

Apparently I have discovered italics. Watch out world.

Almost there...

I need a reader in Africa and one in the Antarctic and I'll have readers on every continent. An easier goal than visiting them all, though that is on the infamous list!

My Soul, Bared Just for You

You Are a Seeker Soul

You are on a quest for knowledge and life challenges. You love to be curious and ask a ton of questions. Since you know so much, you make for an interesting conversationalist. Mentally alert, you can outwit almost anyone (and have fun doing it!). Very introspective, you can be silently critical of others. And your quiet nature makes it difficult for people to get to know you. You see yourself as a philosopher, and you take everything philosophically. Your main talent is expressing and communicating ideas. Souls you are most compatible with: Hunter Soul and Visionary Soul

What Kind of Soul Are You?

The days fly by...

It is already Thursday, though the wee hours of the morn, which means the weekend is almost here! Yay! (This makes it sound as if I don't like my job. I mostly do. I don't like my boss, but I haven't seen him much lately, which definitely improves my mood.)

Monday we had Julie's leaving lunch. I (heart) the Sizzler salad bar. Guacamole, people! Salmon! Bring it! We also got to meet Lee and Deana and they are very, very cool. I think they'll be fun to work with. Monday evening proved to be an evening of discussion with friends. I chatted with a friend from Scotland who I haven't been talking to in awhile and it was great to speak with her again. I'd really missed her. There aren't many people who I feel so in tune with and share so much history with. I ended up going to bed at 7am. It was pure craziness.

Tuesday was Julie's last day at work. I spent most of my prep time randomly sorting through crap on her desk. There was stuff there going back to 2003! Why don't people clean out their desks before they leave? Am I the only one who loves to go and trash all the unnecessary stuff and tie up all the loose ends? I got a pack of Dentyne gum out of it, that has been there at least 6 months. I am sure gum doesn't expire though. It better not, anyway. We got together for her last pizza night. The gang was there, along with the newest Heritage gang members. Just wait til we tell them about the required tats!

Today has been a bit odd. Lee is in Amber's desk. Julie didn't smoke a cig on the walk home. I had a new class, which I quite liked, but have lost some cute students (though I wasn't too fond of teaching them, to be honest). I was vaguely productive-made it to the bank to pay my bills, but didn't manage to make it to the post office. I guess that's the plan for this morning.

Laura and I decided to make dinner together so we headed to HomePlus. My beloved Giordanos had a sweater on sale, so I will be toasty warm this winter I think. I also picked up some hilarious presents for Andrea and David. Can't wait to send them!!! I did a major shop, as always spending more on cheese than on everything else combined. The purpose of the trip was to get chicken, brocoli and potatoes. Then Laura cooked us a "mom" meal. Chicken, mashed potatoes and veg. Yummy. Then I got peckish later and made myself a banana split, which totally takes me back to childhood. I even mashed the ice cream up at the end and mixed it with the chocolate syrup.

LMAO

Ahhhhhh, I love the internet!

I Lack a Key Gene

And apparently it is the one required to be able to appreciate Paulo Coelho novels. Granted, I've only read the one, "By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept". It sucked. Sadly, I am anal, and thus MUST FINISH EVERY BOOK I EVER START. Exceptions are only allowed for anything that is a required text for a class, when it is imperative that I barely skim it, much less read it all, or for War and Peace right before a two week hiking trip.

However, there is seldom a book that I can't find something that ressonates with me. (Dan Brown may be the exception.)

You have to take risks, he said. We will only understand the miracle of life fully when we allow the unexpected to happen.

Every day, God gives us the sun-and also one moment in which we have the ability to change everything that makes us unhappy. Every day, we try to pretend that we haven't perceived that moment, that it doesn't exist-that today is the same as yesterday and will be the same as tomorrow. But if people really pay attention to their everyday lives, they will discover that magic moment. It may arrive in the instant when we are doing something mundane, like puttin our front-door key in the lock; it may lie hidden in the quiet that follows the lunch hour or in the thousand and one things that all seem the same to us. But that moment exists-a moment when all the power of the stars becomes a part of us and enables us to perform miracles.

Joy is sometimes a blessing, but it is often a conquest. Our magic moment helps us to change and sends us off in search of our dreams. Yes, we are going to suffer, we will have difficult times, and we will experience many disappointments-but all of this is transitory; it leaves no permanant mark. And one day we will look back with pride and faith a the journey we have taken.

Take away all the God from this quote, and you are left with something I agree with. I don't like that part of difficulties not leaving permanant marks; I think they do, but that those marks will fade with time much like physical scars. I think it isn't always easy to see the moments that life offers us to make difficult changes. I think that often when it does, we look away on purpose because it all seems so damn hard. And yet, it is by seizing those moments in my own life that I have found the most happiness.

I think being happy is a conquest. It takes risk. It takes work. It takes a great deal of personal growth and a willingness to turn away from the expectations of those around you and tune into yourself. I suspect that it requires long periods of alone time. I think it requires absorbtion and thought and pensiveness.

My journey in the past year has not been easy. Leaving a life that I thought was going to stretch before me for years was difficult. Hurting the person that I most loved in this world for 7 years wasn't easy. Facing everyone I knew and admitting that I had chosen the wrong path was very difficult. More importantly, facing myself and admitting that I wanted something different was not easy.

And yet... The risk was worth it. It was the right thing to do. I am back in my own skin again. I am me and I am happy. If there is anything I could give to my ex right now, it would be the ability to see his own moment. The readiness to take that risk and find his dream. I hope he does.

Sometimes when I'm talking with someone and get excited about what I'm saying, I find myself saying things I've never said before.

This is me in a nutshell. (Well, okay, you couldn't fit much of me in a nutshell, but anyway...) I totally do this. This is why it is so hard to get me to shut up! ;) I totally learn by talking. I learn what I think about things. Stuff always comes out that I didn't really think about, or not in the same way, and the ideas bouncing off someone else just drives it all forward. I love a good chat.

He eyed the glass on the edge of the table-worried that it might fall.

It's a rite of passage, I wanted to say. It's something prohibited. Glasses are not purposefully broken. In a restaurant or in our home, we're careful not to place glasses by the edge of the table. Our universe requires that we avoid letting glasses fall to the floor.

But when we break them by accident, we realize that it's not very serious. The waiter says, "It's nothing," and when has anyone been charged for a broken glass? Breaking glasses is part of life and does no damage to us, to the restaurant, or to anyone else.

Our parents taught us to be careful with glasses and with our bodies. They taught us that the passions of childhood are impossible... that no one leaves on a journey without knowing where they are going.

Another quote about taking risks. Anyone want to hazard a guess that I've been thinking about what comes next? However, I have been an incredibly lucky person, because that last paragraph doesn't really apply to me. My parents have always encouraged me to follow my dreams, as impossible or unrealistic as they may sometimes be. Regardless of whether they approve of my choices, I have always felt secure in the sense that they will always support me and be there if I need somewhere to run away to and lick my wounds. I can't say how grateful I will always be to them for giving me such a beautiful gift. If only there was some way to package that feeling up and give it to everyone on my Christmas list.

And on that sappy note... I love you all and miss you all more than I can say. Thank you all for being my friends and loved ones, in spite of the distance between us. And Julie - we are all going to miss you so much. Safe journey.