Goodbye, Amanda and Abby.

This past weekend I said goodbye to two very dear friends of mine, Amanda and Abby. I met Amanda about a year ago at my last school, and we became fast friends. Abby is the teacher who replaced me at my last job. She and I went to church together. One of the really great things about living abroad is the variety of people you meet! I've met so many friends from many different countries, including Canada, Australia, Korea, Ireland, South Africa, and Brazil! I love having this opportunity to work in Korea because there are so many really interesting people I come across every day.

Amanda and Abby are two special friends of mine, who I'm hoping I'll have a chance to see again. They are both from Canada, but live at opposite ends of the country. They both talk of coming back to Korea in the next few months, but you just never know what awaits them at home. I wish them the very VERY best in their next adventures!

This past weekend, Amanda, Abby, and I were able to celebrate with each other before they boarded their planes home. We met up on Saturday at a hostel in Hongdae. (Abby was staying at a different hostel than Amanda and I.) Amanda and I chatted for a few hours when we first arrived, and then we both took naps. Abby met us at our hostel around 6:30pm, and we waited while Amanda got ready. We met our friend, June, for Korean BBQ dinner. It was SO GOOD!! After that, we went to another restaurant for more food and drinks. (It's a typical Korean night-out to restaurant-hop for different food and drinks.) June took us to this really nice place, kind of underground. He was the only one who had been there before, so it was a new experience for the three of us! They had really delicious food and the atmosphere was awesome.

After that, we met up with some other friends in a Jazz Club down the street. We didn't really feel like staying there long, so we decided to go to a nooribang, a private karaoke room. The four of us found a really nice one down the street. After we paid for the room, we got free popcorn, juice, and ice cream! JACKPOT! We went to our room, and started singing!! I just love the idea of nooribangs and feel like they should open up some of these fine establishments in the States. :)

After the nooribang, we walked to Hongdae Park, and met up with one of Amanda's friends. We talked for awhile in the park, but it was SO COLD! I ended up bailing early, so they walked me back towards the hostel. I wasn't wearing my coat, which was a horrible decision on my part, so I was REALLY uncomfortable. I ended up calling it an early night at 4:00am, while the others went to a pub close-by to keep chatting. I just wanted to be warm. :)

On Sunday, Amanda, Abby, and I met up at the hostel again and got ready to go. I packed all my stuff, because I was only staying that one night. The three of us hopped on the subway and headed towards Myeongdong. Along the way, we passed through Seoul Station. Amanda wanted to take some pictures, so Abby and I stopped in at McDonald's and had some breakfast/lunch/afternoon snack. :) We went on our way and ended up in Myeongdong. We stopped at Starbucks for some coffee to help us keep warm. We walked the streets of Myeongdong and went shopping at all the little carts that were set up. Amanda and Abby were looking for small things to take home with them. We went into a few stores and did some light shopping. I bought a jacket, some leggings, and...A SPIDERMAN SWEATSHIRT!! It's my first one ever! It's like it was meant to be. We were in Forever21, looking around at some coats in a corner of the store. I turned and looked across the room, and all the way in the OPPOSITE corner, hanging on the wall, was a Spiderman sweatshirt. It was love at first sight. Sigh... :) So, I just couldn't resist!

After we finished shopping, we went into a cupcake store called "Goodovening." Ya, I have no idea why it's called that or even how to pronounce it. But, they have the BEST CUPCAKES EVER! They have all different kinds to choose from. I (obviously) chose the chocolate cupcake with chocolate frosting and chocolate cream on the inside. Yum. We sat and chatted for awhile, and then left to look around some more. Throughout the day/night, we took a bunch of pictures in the street. We wanted to document our last night together. For dinner, we went to a popular chain restaurant in Korea. It's one of those restaurants where they cook the food in front of you. It's rice, spicy veggies, chicken, and cheese all mixed together. So. Good. By this point, it was 9:00pm, so we knew we all had to head home. Amanda and Abby had to finish their last minute packing, and I had work in the morning. On our way to the subway, we stopped in at a card store and bought some Christmas cards. We did our very best to find some cards that DIDN'T have typos. (It's really hard to find those in Korea.)

When we got to the subway, we parted ways at the transfer point. The girls were going on Line 2 and I was going on Line 5. Amanda and I took a "sad face" picture at the separation point. We said our goodbyes, there were tears and hugs, but it was good. We did all the things the girls wanted to do and see and eat before they left Korea, and we had a really great time doing it. I'm going to miss Amanda and Abby, but I wish them the best! I'll be sending happy thoughts their way as they sort out their new lives back home. :)

Thanksgiving...American Style!!

On November 17th, I went to a Thanksgiving Banquet at my church. They flew in 35 turkeys from California, so it was the real deal! We had turkey, ham, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, dinner rolls, and green beans. For dessert? Pecan pie and/or pumpkin pie. DELICIOUS!!

I invited Lisa and Ian to go with me, and we met Abby and Elaine there. They started with a short worship service, and then started dismissing tables to load up our plates. YUM! After we finished eating, they started the Talent Show. (They have auditions beforehand, so it's always quite good.) We heard some singing, the orchestra played a few songs, and then...it was time to rap!! Pastor Doug went to the stage and asked for anyone who wanted to participate in the rap-off. Two guys and one girl volunteered, and they started rapping. It was HILARIOUS!! We chose a winner, and he got one of the raffle prizes. Pastor Doug thanked everyone, and then started leaving the stage. Everyone started complaining that we didn't hear him rap. So, he caved in and started rapping about Thanksgiving. It was so good!! Everyone was laughing.

After the Thanksgiving dinner, Elaine, Ian, Lisa, and I all went for coffee at Starbucks. When we got there, we saw a set of couches waiting just for us! We ordered coffees and made ourselves comfortable. Starbucks was playing Christmas music, which I love! We had great conversation and just enjoyed relaxing and hanging out. It was a great end to the night. We all parted ways, and Ian, Lisa, and I headed home.

It was difficult being away from my family on Thanksgiving, just like last year. But, it makes it so much easier when I have a home-cooked meal and a good community to share it with. And later on, I got to Skype home with my family on Thanksgiving morning! That was the best. :)

We love you, Susie.

On Wednesday morning, Tuesday American time, I got the news that Susie, my stepmom, passed away. She had been fighting Cancer for over two years, and her battle finally came to an end. I called her two weeks ago from Korea to chat and catch up. We talked for over an hour about life and memories and Korea and how she was doing. It was really refreshing being able to chat, and I feel like I was able to get closure. I knew that her time was coming soon, but I didn't anticipate it being SO soon. I can find comfort in the fact that her faith was strong, and she's now in Heaven. I am so thankful that she had a relationship with God and that she is with Him in a MUCH better place!

I'm so blessed that I had such a close relationship with my stepmom. There are so many things I loved about Susie. The thing that I will remember most about her is her commitment to Jena and me. She called us her own and always treated us that way. I truly believe that God places people in our lives so we can form relationships with them. Through those relationships, we can build up, love, and encourage one another. My relationship with Susie is one that I will always cherish. Thank you, Susie, for being such a good person and for loving Jena and me. We will miss you so much, but we are so thankful for the 20 years we knew you. We love you, Susie.

Just Another Sunday.

On Sunday, I was heading to church and met Abby a few stops away. She had been staying with a friend, so I called her when the subway was pulling into her station, and she hopped on. It worked out great! We rode the subway to church together. It was nice to have some company. :)

We met Reuel and Michelle at Dos Tacos for lunch. One of my friends, Elaine, who I met on the island a few weeks ago, was on her way to church. She told me she hadn't been able to find a church, so I was excited to invite her to New Harvest. She was originally going to meet us for lunch, but was running late. She ended up just meeting us inside before the service started.

Elaine LOVED the church service, so I was really excited! I'm really happy to be a part of the New Harvest community, and I was pretty confident she would like it. However, in the back of my mind, I was saying an extra prayer that she would find community there. She did! She enjoyed the music, loved the pastor's way of speaking, and said the people were so nice. I felt relieved, and very proud that New Harvest made such a great impression on her! She said she'll definitely be coming back next week!

After church, my small group got together and prayed in the lobby before the final service. We prayed for the worship team, the pastor, and the congregation. (This was something our group decided to do together as a service to the church. However, all of us enjoyed it so much that we want to make it a weekly thing!)

After that, I headed to Dongtan to visit Johnny. We grabbed some chicken at a local restaurant and just hung out and talked. I had left a few things at his place when I moved, so I wanted to get those from him. But it was a great excuse to visit him! :) We had a great visit, as usual. Around 5pm, I headed back home. I had a long bus ride, and was going in and out of sleep, so that was rough...but I finally made it back! When I got home, I wasn't feeling well, so I just relaxed and talked to people online for a bit before calling it a night.

My First Korean Wedding.

On Saturday, I met Lisa at the subway at 7am!! We were dressed in our new dresses, all ready to experience our first Korean wedding! However, we had to attend a seminar for school first. Lame, I know. The seminar was from 9am-1pm, and the wedding began at 3:30pm. We had no time to go home between the seminar and the wedding, so we had to wake up early and get all dolled up! What's even worse is the seminar was very informal attire, so we were prepared to stick out like sore thumbs.

We rode the subway to Bangbae Station. It was only 8am, so we had plenty of time to stop in a bakery and get coffee and breakfast! Ian, our coworker, was supposed to meet us at the subway, but he slept through his alarm or something, so he was running behind. We decided to wait for him in the bakery. We relaxed and enjoyed ourselves, until Ian got there. When he arrived, he grabbed some coffee and we headed to the Seoul Training Center for the seminar. (Lisa was smart and brought her heels in a bag, but I was wearing my wedges...I didn't appreciate the hills we had to take to get to the building...)

When we arrived, it was just as we expected. Everyone was wearing jeans and hoodies, and we were wearing fancy dresses and heels. GREAT! We collected our books and paperwork they gave us and hung out in the lobby. Eventually, we all filed in and found our seats. The seminar was SUCH A JOKE!! We learned about REALLY important things, like the Visa process (Hello! We already made it into the country! I'm pretty sure we know how all this works...), Korean culture (I'm going on my 15th month in Korea, so I'm quite certain I've got a good grasp on the culture...), how to teach English in a foreign country (really??), you know. Really important things like that! Basically, we were miserable. But it was a required seminar set up by the government, so attendance was mandatory.

We FINALLY got out of the seminar at 12:50pm, and decided to find food somewhere. Lisa spotted a Subway (what?!), so we had subs for lunch. Delicious. We walked around the area for a bit, and then decided to head to where the wedding hall was. It was only a few subway stops away, which was convenient. When we got there, Lisa and I went into the bathroom at the subway station and got ready: re-applied make-up, fixed our hair, and Lisa swapped her shoes out, while Ian waited outside. :)

We met Angie, another coworker, at the subway station, and the four of us walked to the wedding hall. When we got inside, we were instructed to go up to the third floor. When we got inside, we went into a side room and took a picture with the bride! EEEEE!! The bride is the Director of my school. Her name is Cindy, and she's just wonderful. :) The four of us took a picture with Cindy, and then we waited for the wedding to start. Lisa and I were bursting at the seams when Cindy gave us invitations because we LOVE weddings, but we were warned by pretty much everyone that Korean weddings are much different than Western weddings. Whatever. We were still pumped. When the wedding was about to start, we realized that there were no more seats left! About half of the guests didn't have a place to sit, so they just stood around in the lobby and talked and played on their phones, while kids were running around screaming. The person leading the ceremony had a microphone, so his voice projected into the lobby, but everyone was just talking and chatting amongst themselves, not really paying attention at all to the ceremony. I was shocked. This is what people had been telling me would happen, but I couldn't BELIEVE it!

The ceremony was really quick, only about 30 minutes. After that, it was picture time. They called up family first, and then called up friends. Cindy had asked me if I would catch her bouquet, and I eagerly agreed! However, I had been given no instructions on what I was supposed to do or when this would occur. When the friends were called up to take pictures, I was told to stand next to Cindy. Everyone was speaking to me in Korean, so Cindy was whispering to me what to do. Then, it was time to catch the bouquet. I was moved off to the side, and Cindy counted and threw the bouquet behind her, while the photographer snapped a bunch of pictures. Thankfully, I caught it! Whew! Then, everyone filed out to the next room for food. I was asked to stay and take pictures with the bride and groom, so that was pretty cool! Lisa was nice enough to wait for me while I did this. When the pictures were finished, Lisa and I went out into the lobby to look for everyone. No one was there.

We had NO idea where to go! We called our friends, but they didn't answer their phones. This was a massive wedding hall, so tons of weddings were taking place at one time. We could only recognize a few people from the wedding we attended, so Lisa and I were lost for a good ten minutes. Finally we made our way to the basement, where we saw the big room of people. This was where the food was. We gave our meal tickets to the lady and went inside. There were hundreds of people inside, sitting at different tables eating. All the wedding guests were mixed together and sitting among one another. We eventually figured out that we were supposed to put our stuff down to reserve a table, and then get in the buffet line. The buffet was a pretty incredible spread! They had Western food, Korean food, Japanese food, Chinese food...so much food! They had lobster and other seafood, steaks, soups, salads, pasta, pastries, so many different choices! It was great! The foreign teachers all sat together, so that was good. We chatted for a bit, and then headed out.

Ian, Lisa, Angie, and I all went into Gangnam for food and drinks. We were all dressed up, so we wanted to make the most of it! Angie eventually left, and my friend, Abby, joined us. We went restaurant/bar hopping. I had my pack of cards with me, so we played card games and just chatted. It was a really fun evening. :) Eventually, we all parted ways, and went home. I've now experienced my first Korean wedding. I'm glad I went (and was honored to catch the bouquet!), but I don't feel like I need to go to another one while I'm here... :)

Crazy Love Small Group.

I've recently joined a small group at my church. It is a co-ed group, with a mix of foreigners and Koreans. Over the next three months, we will be reading the book, Crazy Love, by Francis Chan. Some of my friends have read it in the past and had only good things to say about it, so I'm really excited to start diving in! The leader of my small group is Peter, and he's awesome! He works as a translator, and he speaks English, Spanish, and Korean fluently. Pretty impressive, huh? From day one, I could tell that our small group was filled with really awesome people. We have teachers, computer geeks, programmers, traders, and buiness people. The jobs are all over the map, we all have different backgrounds, but we're all in this group for the same purpose: to learn about and experience first-hand the enormous amount of love God has for us!

My small group meets every Tuesday night at 7:00pm in Gangnam. It's really convenient for me to get there by subway, and I only have to transfer one time. Exciting! Last week, I was given another class at school, which forced me to stay at work until 6:00pm. That gives me JUST enough time to get to small group on time! I told Peter that I might be late every week because of this extra class, and he said it was fine. It's just my own personality that's frustrated by this. I HATE being late places, so I knew that every Tuesday night I would be running to small group. And when I say running, I mean it. I bolted out the door when my class finished and headed for the subway. Along the way, I ate a protein bar and a banana, since I didn't have time to stop for dinner. (I'll definitely have to figure out something else for next week, because that's not gonna be substantial enough for dinner.)

The subway takes 42 minutes, and then it's about a 10-minute walk from the subway station to the building where my group is meeting. I hopped off the subway in Gangnam and ran to small group! Fortunately, I strolled in the door five minutes before 7:00pm, and only Peter and one other guy were there. GREAT!! I didn't mind that everyone else was running behind. I was just thrilled that I was on time.

Small group discussion was great, and I'm really looking forward to more deeper discussions in the future. I think they will be good. A lot of people were really willing to share, and I heard a lot of unique perspectives, so that was interesting. Our small group time focuses a lot on prayer, which I really appreciate. I find that in my daily life, I leave little time for just sitting in silence and listening for God. My quiet times are all about praying for specific people and needs, and rarely do I stop after I pray to listen for God. So, I really appreciate the time we're devoting to praying for one another and just listening. It's really refreshing, actually.

After small group, two girls, Amanda and Kayla, invited me to go with them to McDonald's to get McFlurries. Obviously I wasn't gonna turn THAT down!! I had never had a McFlurry in Korea, and it was quite good! They didn't have the M&M one, which I always get, but it forced me to try to Oreo ones. What a tough life. :) It was great to hang out with Amanda and Kayla and get to know them better outside of small group. Hopefully we'll hang out a lot more!!

Wedding Preparations...

The director of my school, Cindy, is getting married this Saturday, and she invited all the teachers to her wedding!! I'm so pumped because I LOVE weddings!! Plus, it gives me an excuse to go shopping...for a new dress! I'm especially excited because Cindy asked me earlier last week if I would catch her bouquet for her. AHHHH!! It's a bit different from back home. In Korea, the bride pre-selects someone to catch her bouquet. They take photos together, and the bride specifically throws it to the person. According to Korean culture, after catching a bouquet, you must get married in the next three years....Welp! I'm not worried about that. I'm not Korean. I'm just SUPER excited that I get the honor of catching her bouquet!

On Sunday, I met Abby, Reuel, and Mi-yeon at Dos Tacos for lunch before church. We went to church and had a great service, and worship was especially good! The sermon was about intentionally seeking after God in everything you do. I always feel like God is speaking directly to me through Pastor Doug. It was a really good sermon. I definitely needed to hear those words.

After church I met up with Lisa so we could go SHOPPING!! We both needed to buy dresses to wear to Cindy's wedding. There were so many restrictions, so it seemed like it would be a rather daunting task. We couldn't wear white, because that's the color of the bride's dress. We couldn't wear black, because that's the color you wear to a funeral. We couldn't wear red, because it's bad luck in Korea. We couldn't wear a short dress, it had to be longer, around the knee, because we're in Korea. It's Fall, so we had to choose a color that would go well with Fall. Sigh...sometimes it's so tough being a girl. :)

Lisa and I were prepared to go shopping all day since we didn't know how successful we would be looking in Korean shops. However, we both found dresses in the first store!! We went to the dressing room together to give each other feedback and see what we liked. After trying on our first options, Lisa asked, "Did we just find our dresses for the wedding?" Jackpot! Well, once we bought dresses, we had to find everything else that would match. Shoes, a bag, jewelry...Fortunately, both of us already had shoes that matched our dresses. Lisa needed to look for jewelry to match her dress, and I needed a black clutch to match my dress. We ducked in and out of a few stores, and finally had everything we needed. After that, we were just looking around stores for fun. Since it's nice Fall weather now, it's a bit cooler. I bought a few sweaters, and Lisa picked up a few things, too. Overall, it was quite a successful shopping trip.

We stopped at The Frypan for dinner, a fried chicken and chips chain in Korea. Lisa had never been there, and it's one of my favorites. :) After dinner, we weren't ready to go home yet. We decided to get coffee, and I suggested we go to a local board game cafe that I've been to with other friends. We went there, ordered, and then headed downstairs to choose a board game. We decided on Monopoly. I was particularly excited because I've never actually played the real version of Monopoly, only Monopoly Jr. So, I didn't know how to play the game with mortgages, big money, and trading properties. And it quickly became even MORE fun because it was the Korean version of Monopoly. All the cards were written out in Korean, the game spaces like "Boardwalk" were now "Gangnam and Suwon," common places in Korea. Luckily, I can read Korean, so we were able to maneuver our way around the board. Lisa had played before, so she was able to decipher what the cards were saying based on the amount of money and the pictures. We fumbled our way through the game, with tons of laughs. It was pretty great for my first time playing real Monopoly! Lisa ended up winning...but I didn't mind! We were at the cafe playing for 3 hours!! We played until I went bankrupt. :)

Sunday was quite long and exhausting, but it was productive, too! We caught the subway home, and prepared for another week of teaching. I'm REALLY looking forward to next weekend when the wedding rolls around. It's going to be quite the experience! :)

Ulleungdo Island: Day Four.

We woke up and packed our bags for departure. We grabbed some breakfast at the hotel restaurant downstairs and piled our bags on top of one another in the hotel lobby. There was an option to go see a waterfall on the island, but Elaine and I didn't want to go. We stayed behind while Lisa and Kelsey caught the bus for the waterfall excursion.

Elaine and I decided to go find some coffee at the ONLY coffee shop on the island. We waited in a really long line to get our coffee, but it was worth it! There are some things in life, like coffee, that I take for granted every day. When you go three days without coffee, you realize how spoiled you are. :) We decided to take our coffee to-go and wander around down by the harbor. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, so we wanted to be out in it as much as possible. We wandered around the harbor, watching the old men selling fish. This was the first time Elaine and I had been able to hangout alone, so it was cool to chat with her and get to know her a little bit more.

After a little bit of conversation, she told me that she's been searching for a church ever since she's been here. I was eager to invite her to New Harvest! New Harvest has been really good for my life, so I'm so excited when I have the opportunity to invite other people to join our community! We walked and talked for over an hour and got to know each other. We wandered back up to the hotel and got in line for our ferry tickets home. When Kelsey and Lisa got back, we got our ferry tickets. We wanted to sit together on our way back.

A little later, we put all of our stuff in the back of the truck, and went towards the harbor to find some lunch. Lunch was on our own, and we didn't have many options. Lisa and I settled for some ramen from the convenience store. We had to eat super fast, so that was kind of a pain, but we managed to finish in time. We met the truck down by the harbor, got our bags, and made our way to the ferry. When we got inside, we realized that our tickets weren't actually together...The girls were all togethe in the last row of a section, and I was the first seat in the next section...GREAT! It didn't matter. I spent most of the time standing next to them and hanging out with people at the back of the ferry by the Dunkin' Donuts. Yep. There was indeed a Dunkin' Donuts. Woot! I didn't get anything, since my stomach didn't feel very good, but it's still pretty awesome that they had one, right?!

When we got back to Mukho Harbor, we booked it for the buses. The buses were waiting for us, which was nice, so we were able to get right on. Since my seat was near the front of the ferry near the door, I came out way before Lisa. I grabbed us seats near the front of the bus and waited for her to leave the ferry. On our way home, we watched 300, a movie that I hadn't seen before. Surprisingly, it was decent. I thought I'd hate it since those aren't really my kind of movies. We stopped at a rest stop to stretch our legs, get snacks, and use the bathroom. We got back on the bus, and Max put in another movie, which I didn't care to watch...Gulliver's Travels. Lame. I slept through most of that movie. We stopped one more time before we FINALLY made it back to Express Bus Terminal. We said goodbye to our new friends, and headed for the subway to go home.

Lisa and I hadn't eaten a proper dinner yet, so we were both pretty hungry. At this point, it was already pretty late, and most restaurants were already closed. We decided to grab some noodles and kimbap for dinner at a 24-hour restaurant near my place. It was really tasty after eating rice and soup all weekend. We finished our dinner and headed home. What a successful weekend! I had a great time meeting new friends, enjoying beautiful weather on the island, and relaxing away from the busyness of Seoul! :)

Ulleungdo Island: Day Three.

We woke up early, around 7am, to eat breakfast. We were taking a bus tour of the island right after breakfast, so went ahead and packed our bags before grabbing food. The breakfast was in the hotel restaurant, so when we finished, we just hung out there and talked for awhile. Finally, it was time to go!! We asked Max which bus he would be the tour guide on, and we jumped on his bus. He's just awesome, and makes everything 10 times more fun! We toured around the island, stopping at various places along the way. We would get out and snap a few pictures, and then jump back on the bus. We saw some great places on the island that would've been impossible to see on our own, so that was really cool! There were four buses total, and the mountain roads became quite scary at times...but we all survived and had a great time!

The final destination of our bus tour was the top of the crater on the island. We arrived there just in time to have some lunch at the ONLY restaurant there...a bibimbap place. (Bibimbap is a traditional Korean food with rice and vegetables mixed together. It's delicious AND healthy!!) We ate lunch together and met new people in our group, so that was good. After that, we wandered around outside, took more pictures, and prepared to go on our next adventure. Half the group was going to hike back down the mountain that we drove up (No thanks!!), and the other half of the group was going to Dokdo Island. It went to Dokdo. There's a back-story with this island. Korea and Japan are fighting over ownership of this island. They've been fighting over it for years, and no one officially owns it. If you ask a Korean, they'll argue to the death that it's Korea's island. I'm sure the Japanese would react the same way...Anyway, it's a big deal and a very controversial issue, so I'm really lucky that I had the opportunity to go see the island for myself.

I know I may be playing favorites here since I've been a part of the Korean culture for over a year now, but there are pretty clear facts that make it seem like Dokdo should belong to Korea:

-Currently, there are about 50 people living on the island. All 50 people are Korean.
-There is a small group of Police officers who patrol the island and the harbor. All the Police are Korean.
-On previous maps of Japan and Korea, Dokdo Island never showed up on Japan's maps until recently, whereas, it has always shown up on Korea's map.

Given the facts, I'd say the argument is clear. But what do I know?! :)

Anyway, we took the 3-HOUR LONG FERRY RIDE out to the island. The ferry was quite small, so a lot of people were getting seasick. I would like to consider myself to have a pretty strong stomach, but I was NOT appreciating the high waves and the jolting of the boat back and forth. Disaster. By the time were got off the ferry, we were exhausted and not feeling that great. We were on the island for only about 30 minutes, which was disappointing. We weren't able to go see anything on the island because no one had permission from the people living there. We could only stand at the harbor and take photos. Our group had a poster with us that read, "Dokdo is Korea's Island." This sign was passed around among both foreigners and Koreans who all wanted to take a picture with it. After pictures were finished, we loaded back onto the ferry and took the 3-hour journey back to the mainland. Over half the people in the boat were sick, as in SEASICK. There were people lying on the floor and in the aisles, pretty much anywhere they could find space. It seemed like ages before we finally made it back.

By the time we got back to the mainland, it was really dark outside. The buses were waiting for us, but Max suggested that we all rest for about 30 minutes before getting back on the bus. Everyone just wanted to feel solid ground under their feet, so no one objected to Max's suggestion. Once everyone felt better, we got on the buses and went back to the hotel. It took about 30 minutes, and by that time, we were super hungry and tired. We just wanted to get food and settle our stomachs.

Dinner was on our own, so we decided to grab food at the pizza place next door to the hotel. Lisa and I had been eating rice and soup for almost every meal since we don't eat seafood. Both of us were ready to have something substantial and normal for dinner. We sat inside and ordered a pizza, and then headed back up to the hotel room. Elaine and Kelsey went back up to the rooftop to party with some people. Lisa and I couldn't bring ourselves to do anything, so we chatted until about midnight in the hotel, and then called it a night. Old ladies. :)

To be continued...

Ulleungdo Island: Day Two.

Fortunately, the bus was pretty quiet, so we were able to get a little bit of sleep. I can pretty much sleep anywhere, so I was lucky, but it was a restless sleep for most, I think! We arrived at the beach around 4am, and the two buses just parked. We slept on the bus for another 2 hours until the leader, Max, woke everyone up and told us to get off the bus and watch the sunrise. We all grabbed our cameras and made our way out to the beach to get some pictures. It was FREEZING!! We all had on pants and light jackets, but we didn’t anticipate the chilly morning breeze coming off the ocean. Brrrr!

Lisa and I took some great photos of the sun coming up, so that was beautiful! We made our way back to the bus, grabbed some money, and ran into a store nearby to get some coffee. Just what I needed! We got back on the bus and drove about 30 minutes towards the harbor. We stopped in a small town and grabbed some breakfast. We had about 30 minutes to eat, so we just sat outside on benches and ate our food. We hopped back on the bus, and went on our way. Next stop…Mukho Harbor!!

When we arrived at the Harbor, we grabbed our bags, got off the bus, and were each handed a ferry ticket. We had to fill out our names, phone numbers, and passport numbers. In no time, we boarded the ferry, and we were on our way to Ulleungdo Island!! The ferry would take us 3 hours, so we pretty much passed out right away! I slept for most of the ferry ride, so that was nice.

When we got to Ulleungdo Island, we got off the ferry and walked up the street to a truck. The island was BEAUTIFUL!! The air was filled with the sound of people, motorbikes, the smell of fish (not so pleasant to my nose…), and there was a nice cool breeze coming off the ocean. I was so excited to FINALLY be at the island!! We threw our bags in the back of the truck and walked about 8 minutes up a big hill to our hotel. We sat on the steps for a while, waiting for Max to sort out the keys to our rooms. There were 128 people total on our trip, so it took some time. We were told to divide ourselves into groups of 4 or 5. There were two girls sitting in front of Lisa and me on the steps, so we asked if they wanted to room together. They agreed, and we became fast friends! We grabbed our key and went to our room. We introduced ourselves and started talking right away. The girls are Kelsey and Elaine. They both work together, and have only been in Korea for a few months. The four of us bonded pretty quickly, and stuck together for the rest of the trip. Randomly rooming with people can be pretty risky, but Lisa and I were lucky…these girls were great!!

Our hotel room was a decent size (for Korea), and we were all pretty pleased. We had a full bathroom, with a bathtub?! (Also a big deal for Korea.) There were four sleeping mats and four pillows, so we would be sleeping Korean-style for this trip…Woot! We made ourselves comfortable, washed our faces after the long trip, and headed downstairs to get lunch.

The hotel was connected to a small Korean restaurant. Adventure Korea had pre-paid for some of our meals, so that was nice. We went in the restaurant and helped ourselves to the buffet. There was rice (of course!), kimchi (of course!), noodles, fish, and soup. I don’t eat fish, so I helped myself to rice and soup. We sat down at a table and talked with our new friends. After lunch, we had some break time before hiking.

We all met on the front steps of the hotel at 3:30pm. We were going to hike to a lighthouse and go bridge jumping…SO FUN!! The hike was much longer than we anticipated, so we definitely got a workout! It was a beautiful hike, and the weather was perfect! Fall weather in Korea is my favorite. We hiked for an hour or so, and finally made our way to a lighthouse at the top of the mountain. It was a very modern-looking lighthouse, with a house attached where people lived. (It made sense after that long hike…can’t imagine hiking THAT every day to work!!) Our group took a photo at the top of the lighthouse, and then just enjoyed the beautiful view. On our way back down the mountain, we stopped at a bridge, and had the option to jump off if we wanted!

I held the cameras and took photos and videos of Lisa, Kelsey, and Elaine. Max was in the water the whole time with a camera attached to his helmet. He was recording people jumping in. It was really fun to watch everyone jumping off the bridge! I got some great shots, and didn’t have to endure the FREEZING water! Win-win!

Lisa and I walked back to the hotel after she finished jumping a few times to change clothes for our next adventure…riding a cable car to the top of the mountain! We met again on the front steps and walked FOREVER to get to the cable car. We toured a museum all about Dok-do Island, the controversial island that Korea and Japan are fighting over for ownership…They handed us our ferry tickets, and we got into the cable car. They piled so many of us into the cable car that it was nearly impossible to take any photos or see out…bummer.

When we got to the top, we went exploring. We took some photos and walked up the mountain a bit more to see an AMAZING view of the whole island! It was breathtaking! The sun was setting, so we got to take some amazing photos of the pink and blue sky…something that we just can’t see in Seoul. Lisa and I got some photos with Max, he became our new best friend quite quickly! He was an amazing tour guide, and was so much fun to be around! When we were done, we rode the cable car back down the mountain. At the bottom, we took a short trail to the side of the mountain where we could sample medicinal water. I was expecting natural spring water, so I took a huge gulp and nearly spit it out! It tasted like pennies!! They told us it tasted like copper because it was natural, and that was the healing part of the water. That was an unfortunate surprise…We made our way back down the mountain, and went back to the hotel restaurant for dinner. Dinner for me was again only rice and soup because the main dish was seafood. Blah.

After dinner, Lisa, Elaine, Kelsey, and I went to the local market and bought drinks and snacks. We headed up to the rooftop of the hotel to relax and enjoy ourselves. We had a great time, but we were completely exhausted from the day. Not many people from our group were up there, so it was nice and quiet. We stayed up on the roof looking at the stars and enjoying the peace and quiet. Such a nice change from Seoul!! At around 11pm, we all decided to call it a night.

To be continued...

Ulleungdo Island: Day One.

On Friday, I prepared and packed my bag for a 4-day trip to Ulleungdo Island!! I have Friday-Wednesday off from work for Chuseok, the Korean Thanksgiving, so I took full advantage of that! I wanted to get away from the busyness of Seoul and relax and celebrate my 24th birthday!!

I made a very specific packing list, and managed to fit everything into a book bag. Pretty impressive, huh?! At 1pm, I met up with Lisa. We both wanted to see a movie before our trip, so we took the subway to the closest CGV (movie theater) to check out what movies were playing. We arrived just before 2pm, just in time to buy tickets for “Taken 2.” We bought our popcorn and drinks and headed into the theater. This was Lisa’s first Korean movie experience, so we were both excited!!

After the movie, we took the subway home and finished up our last-minute packing. I showered and double-checked my packing list before leaving my apartment. I met Lisa at 7:45pm. We grabbed dinner at Misoya, a Japanese restaurant near us, and then headed to the subway station. We were meeting up at 10:30pm to catch the bus. (This was our first trip with Adventure Korea, a travel company for foreigners in Korea. They were extremely organized from the beginning, so it made this trip hassle-free for us!) We met the rest of the group in front of the subway station, and introduced ourselves to some people. Lisa and I were excited about meeting new people, hopefully ones who lived in Seoul like us!

We boarded the bus at 11:30pm and went on our way. We would be driving through the night, so we were ready to sleep!

To be continued...

Good friends, good times.

This morning, I woke up and Skyped with my big sis, Jena, before church. It was wonderful, as usual. :) I jumped on the subway around 11am, and headed to church. The group saved me a seat inside, which was good, since I just barely made it in before worship started! My favorite worship leader, Eddie, was singing this morning, so I was pumped. He always chooses just the right songs, and they're perfect for what I need to hear. Love it. Church was great, and small groups start this week. I've been praying for my small group and small group leader this past week, and I can't wait to officially meet everyone this Tuesday. I hope God has a lot planned for this group!

After church, Johnny, Mi-yeon, Michelle, and I went to Dos Tacos for lunch. After lunch, we went to Kyobo Tower, the bookstore, to bum around. Michelle and Mi-yeon had to buy a few things, so we just looked around. I could seriously get lost in that place...

After that, we made our way to a cafe in Gangnam. We just wanted to relax and chill for a bit before heading home. We had great conversation, and it was so good to be together again! It had been a long time since the four of us had gotten together.

Around 5pm, we all parted ways. Johnny and I hung out for a bit after to talk and catch up. I just love that guy. He's really great, and we always have the best conversations. I'm so blessed to have such great people in my life! I had no idea before I came to Korea what kind of friendships I would be building with people here. God is so good.

When we finished talking, I headed to the subway, and Johnny jumped on a bus. When I got home, Lisa and I met up for dinner. We went to Misoya, a Japanese restaurant near us. We talked for forever about school and life and MY BIRTHDAY PLANS!!! (I turn 24 this Thursday. Wooty!)

Now, I have some progress reports to write for school. They're due tomorrow. I'm starting them at 9:15pm, the night before they're due. Procrastinate much? Story of my life.

This week is short, only four days because of Chuseok, Korean Thanksgiving. I'm going on a 5-day island trip with Lisa. More about that later...I have some progress reports to write!! :)

YBM Seminar.

On Saturday, I woke up early and Skyped with my youngest sister, Jodi, for 2 1/2 hours!! It was a wonderful way to start my morning! :) After that, I ran to the subway to meet Lisa. We had a seminar from 1pm-4:30pm a few subway stops away. Neither one of us was looking forward to it, but it was a requirement. At least we had each other...

The seminar was pretty uneventful and quite boring. The guy running the training, Robert, is the same guy who did my initial 3 days of training before I started teaching. He's a really great guy, and he presents well. However, this information wasn't anything new, so it was boring. At one point, Robert called me up on stage to participate in a role-playing activity. I had to play the "teacher," and three other seminar people played the "students," who all had specific roles to play. I had to find out how each student was feeling based on my interactions with each one of them. It was pretty brutal, but I managed to get some laughs from the rest of the group...

After the seminar, Lisa and I headed home and grabbed a quick dinner at the rice ball place on the corner. We both went home and took 30-minute power naps, and then met up at the subway station again. We were going to Itaewon to meet a friend of ours and some of her friends for dinner and drinks...or so we thought...

We met up at 8pm at the subway station and went to a Mexican restaurant. There were six of us total, so unfortunately, we weren't all able to sit together. Lisa, Fahmida, and I all sat together, and Allen, Steph, and Ollie sat together. The food was okay, nothing special, but we had great conversation. When we were all finished eating, we went outside and talked about where to head to next for some drinks. Well, apparently there was a miscommunication between the other group about staying in Itaewon or going to a different city. It turned into a really awkward argument/discussion which Lisa and I did not wish to be a part of. We had come a long way to meet them in Itaewon, so we were just going to stay. While they fought, we quietly excused ourselves and just went our own way. No need for drama. We were there to have a good time and explore a bit, and that's just what we did. :)

We ended up in a pub called "The Rose and Crown" and had some drinks. We went on the second floor and sat right by the window. We felt the nice breeze and had great conversation. I've really enjoyed getting to know Lisa more and more. She's a really cool girl, and I'm so glad we're teaching together!

After that, we explored a bit more, went into a Canadian pub (for Lisa's benefit...), and then headed back to the subway. Itaewon is where the line-dancing bar is, but besides that, I'm not familiar with the rest of the area. We ran into some really cool places, so we're definitely going to check those out in the future!

Toaster Oven!!

I got a wonderful surprise when I went to work today...my parents bought me a TOASTER OVEN!!! Eeeee!! For those of you who may not be jumping out of your skin like I am, this is an appliance that is extremely hard to come by and VERY much appreciated in Korea. With a two-burner gas range stove and no microwave, it makes cooking a decent meal here nearly impossible. The burners on the stove don't maintain the same amount of heat so one side of the pan gets hotter than the other...and if you ever make anything that has leftovers, count on eating it cold since there's no microwave to pop it into and heat up.

But, luckily for me, I have a toaster oven now so my cooking options are endless!! The minute I got home, I started Googling "toaster oven recipes" and came up with some really great ones. You know what I'm most excited about?! Making homemade chocolate chip cookies again! Wooty!

So...thank you to my parents for giving me this toaster oven. And by the way, they gave it to me for an early birthday present since my birthday is in 14 DAYS!! ... and I'll be 24. WHAT?! :)

Silent Disco!

On Saturday morning, Lisa and I met at the subway station at 8am...(so early for us on a weekend!), and headed out to Paju Premium Outlets. Paju ("Pah-chew") is REALLY far away from where we live, so it took us two hours to get out there after taking the subway and an express bus. Lisa found out about the Premium Outlets online, and we were both really excited about it! We didn't have anything we wanted/needed to buy, so we just wanted to check it out. There were tons of stores out there, more expensive ones like Prada, to more common stores you would find back home, like Banana Republic. We walked around all three floors, ducked in and out of the stores we were interested, and window-shopped in the more expensive ones. We had lunch at Johnny Rockets there...delicious! We put some coins in the little juke box at our table and chose some old-timey songs, so that was fun! After a long day of shopping, we grabbed some dinner at a Korean porridge place and headed to Mi-yeon's house.

When we got to Mi-yeon's, we changed clothes and headed out to Myeongdong for a Silent Disco! This was our first silent disco in Korea, so we were SUPER pumped!! We had to check-in by 8pm, so we were running to and from the subway to make it there on time. We signed in and were given a pair of headphones. They were ginormous ones like what DJs wear, and I guess they were wireless?? Anyway, they were all blasting the same music. The theme for Saturday night was "Songs We All Know," so there was a mix of Korean and English songs that are really popular right now. Pop songs, club songs, rap music, remixes of stuff. It was awesome. When everyone got their headphones, we all started a parade through downtown Myeongdong. There were about 200 of us, I think!! Anyway, we were all singing and dancing together to the same music coming from our headphones. People were lined up on the side of the street watching us and taking pictures and video. Occasionally we would take our headphones off for a second to hear what the crowd was hearing. They couldn't hear the music we could hear. They could only hear 200 people screaming off-key to random music and dancing like fools! Sometimes, the DJ would tell us to stop in the middle of the street and just dance. Other times he would tell us to take off our headphones and give them to someone in the crowd. What a blast!! We had this silent disco for about two hours, and then went back and turned our headphones in. The silent disco was completely free, so we had the option to donate some money at the end of the night for the next disco.

When we returned our headphones, we went back into downtown Myeongdong where they had a dance party going on until 5am!! It was only about 10:30pm at this point, but we just wanted to check it out. We were smack dab in the middle of the crowd, and out of nowhere, this news reporter came up and asked if we would do an interview with her for the evening news. Um...obviously? Mi-yeon, Lisa, Amanda, and I agreed, and somehow I was voted to be the spokesperson for our group. The news reporter disappeared for a minute and came back with two cameramen and a guy holding a microphone on a pole. Intense. The four of us lined up and the news reporter asked me all the questions. She asked about the Silent Disco and my experience of being a part of it. It was only about two minutes of interviewing, and we were finished! Woot! It was so exciting! After editing out portions and getting it TV-ready, it will air tonight (Korea time!) on the 9pm evening news. WHAT?! Mi-yeon is going to ask her family to record it so the four of us can watch it. So, if you were wondering, I'm famous now. :)

The dance party was kind of lame compared to the silent disco, so we got bored pretty quickly after our TV debut... :) So, we all decided to go a few subway stops over to Hongdae and meet up with some of our other friends. They were already partying there, so we went to meet them. Before we met them, we stopped for some midnight dinner at a Korean restaurant. We had Korean quesadillas and some drinks. We met up with our friends, Abby, Melea, Sarah, and some new people! It's always great to meet new people. We went to a few clubs and bars, and then decided to head home. Lisa and I had been up almost 24 hours at this point, so we were wiped out! Mi-yeon was super nice and invited us to stay and sleep at her house, so at 4am, the three of us took a short taxi ride to her neighborhood and crashed.

This morning, Mi-yeon, Lisa, and I woke up early. We were exhausted. Mi-yeon and I headed to Gangnam for church, and Lisa headed home to shower and sleep. Mi-yeon and I met Reuel, Michelle, and some other church buddies for some Mexican food, and then headed to church. Today, we signed up for small groups, so I'm really pumped about that! I signed up for a small group during the week. They are offering 40 small groups, and you have to write down your top three choices. They cap the small groups at 15 or 20, so it's really important to sign up early and put in your preferences! We will get emails this week telling us what small group we've been put into. I can't wait!! I think small groups will officially start the first week of October. It will be so nice to have some community with church friends during the week, and I'm really excited to meet new people. Because our church is so big, sometimes it's hard to leave the comfort of your own group of friends. Small groups is a great way to do that. I intentionally don't sign up with any friends, so I sort of force myself to take a step out of my comfort zone and meet people. After church, I came home, cleaned the house up a bit, did laundry, and took a nap. I texted Lisa, and she and I met up for some dinner. I'm still pretty tired, but I'm forcing myself to stay awake a bit longer so I will keep my sleeping schedule on track. Here's to another awesome weekend!! :)

Wicked.

On Saturday, Lisa and I went to Itaewon to meet up with Mi-yeon. Itaewon is near one of the military bases here. It's known for its delicious Western food, great shopping, (and line-dancing bar, if that's your thing!) :) It's completely overrun by foreigners, and it's the only place in Korea where you have to worry about crime. Nothing serious, of course, but bikes and purses being stolen, things like that. It's sad that the city with the highest crime rate is the city populated mostly by foreigners.

Anyway, Lisa hadn't been to Itaewon yet, so she and I went there. Lisa was on a mission to find some books, but other than that, we were just going to wander. We met up with Mi-yeon and did some window shopping for awhile. We eventually decided to make our way to the Han River. Technically it's within walking distance, but not really! After 30 minutes of walking, we made it to the river. Whew! What a hike! But it was worth it. We walked for bit along the river, Lisa took some pictures, and then we sat on a bench and rested for awhile. Lisa and I hadn't eaten lunch yet, so we decided to head back into town and find somewhere to eat. Instead of walking back, we decided to take a neighborhood bus. It's similar to a city bus, but just a mini-version. :)

We hopped on the bus, (after paying $0.70?!) and headed into town. Korea is known for its scary drivers, but I have not yet experienced any crashes or accidents. Somehow amidst all the chaos, every car, bus, and motorbike seem to squeeze by unharmed. However, this time we were not so lucky. About 10 minutes into the bus ride, the driver was trying to maneuver the bus through a tight street. He thought he had clearance on both sides, but ended up scraping the side of a work van that was parked on the street. A heated exchange took place between the workers and the bus driver, and eventually, the bus driver told everyone to get off the bus.

Well, this left Lisa, Mi-yeon, and me in a very unfamiliar part of town. Wonderful. After weaving in and out of neighborhoods and small alleyways, we were so turned around. We had no idea where to go. Mi-yeon chose a direction, and we all started walking. We ended up finding a street that was all antique shops. OBVIOUSLY we had to stop in each one of them and see what fun treasures they had! It was great! It killed time, we got some great photos, and we eventually found our way back to Itaewon. Success! We stopped in at Taco Bell. Lisa ate lunch, but I just got a drink. We would be eating dinner soon, and I didn't want to ruin my appetite.

At 5pm, we headed over to Outback to make a reservation. We ran into Amanda (who we were going to meet up with later!), so all four of us went to "What the Book," an English bookstore with new and used books. We looked around there for about a half hour, and Lisa was able to find all the books she was looking for. The books were cheap, (but still not as cheap as a Kindle!) :) We ended up parting ways with Lisa, and Amanda, Mi-yeon, and I went to Outback. We had DELICIOUS food!! It was really nice to have food from back home, that you just can't find in Korea. Mmmm. After Outback, we walked about 20 minutes to the theater where we would see WICKED. Woot! We were so excited!

The show started at 8pm. There was an intermission at 9:30pm, and the show finished up at 11pm. A long show, but it was fantastic! I have actually never seen "The Wizard of Oz," so I was a little confused by some of the references in the story. After the show, they were explained to me, and it all made sense. The singers were phenomenal, especially the actor who played Elphaba. Wow. It was really impressive! The show was entirely in English, of course, and there were TVs across the front along the floor, and two TVs hanging from the ceiling all with Korean subtitles. It was an interesting setup. But the stage was phenomenal, and the special effects were great. Just awesome. After the show, we all ran for the subway, so we could make it home before the trains stopped!

Typhoon Bolaven.

While my family and friends are in the midst of hurricane season in Florida, I'm hunkering down and preparing for Typhoon Bolaven to strike Korea within the next six hours. When Bolaven went through Japan yesterday, it was 161 mph, and 1,250 miles in diameter. It has now gained strength and is even wider. According to the latest CNN report, Typhoon Bolaven is now "roughly the size of France to Poland in land mass." While I've gotten used to hurricanes, typhoons are not something I've experienced yet. Hurricanes can be scary enough!

Please send happy thoughts and prayers to South Korea. Classes have been canceled for tomorrow (Tuesday), and all the schools are shutting down. I went to the market tonight after work and stocked up on food and water. The typhoon will make landfall sometime in the early morning, and will be in Seoul by 10am, Tuesday, my time. Keep my family and friends in your thoughts, as well, as they are dealing with the hurricanes in Florida.

I'll send updates a little later. Hopefully I'll have nothing to report on! :)

A Very Productive Day.

This morning, I woke up before my alarm and got a jumpstart on my day! I ate breakfast and watched an episode of "Dexter" while I woke up a little bit. Then, the real fun began. (I cleaned my apartment earlier this week, but hadn't had a chance to clean my bathroom. Actually...I had purposely been avoiding it.) Anyway, today was the day. I would clean my bathroom. It was quite a chore!! I cleaned my shower, toilet, and sink, and SCRUBBED the floors! They were so gross! It has become apparent to me that the guy who lived in this apartment before me never cleaned. Ever. So, it took me about an hour and a half to clean the whole bathroom. When it was finished, I felt relieved. I had been putting it off since I moved in, and for some reason this morning, I was feeling really motivated to clean it. Yay for me!

When I finished that, I jumped on Facebook and asked Lisa if she wanted to meet up for lunch. We met at 1pm, and walked around our area, looking at all our food options. We hadn't really branched out much to see what kind of restaurants we had around us, and today was the perfect day for that. We decided on a small bakery. It was good and exactly what we wanted. We chatted a bit and then headed our separate ways. We were going to meet up again later, but we both had stuff to do.

I went home and did a few loads of laundry and hung it all up to dry. While I was waiting for the loads to finish, I checked email and Facebook, and watched another episode or two of "Dexter." Finally, my laundry had all been hung up. I used my laundry rack, AND draped clothes all over my room. Thank you, Korea, for not having dryers. I'm really excited though because now that my apartment is officially clean, I can take pictures and show off my new apartment on Facebook! Woot!

At 6:45pm, Lisa and I met downstairs and went to Pizza Hut. We got a pepperoni pizza to go, stopped for some drinks at a 7-11, and then headed back up to my apartment. Lisa is the first official person to see my apartment. So exciting! (I'm the only one who lives on this side of the street. The other foreign teachers live in the same apartment building together on the opposite side of the street.) We ate pizza, drank beer, and just relaxed. We talked for forever just about life, and it was just what we both needed. She left at 10:30pm. We both have early mornings tomorrow, and we were yawning a lot, so we decided we should call it a night. I'm so grateful for friends like Lisa, and I can't WAIT for church in the morning! :)

Whitewater Rafting!!

On Saturday (yesterday), I went whitewater rafting with my church!! We were meeting up really early in the morning to take the bus out there. Johnny, Mi-yeon, Abby, and I signed up to go together. It was 45,000 won (about $45), which included whitewater rafting, transportation, and a Korean BBQ lunch. What a great deal! So, we all met at 8am in Gangnam to catch the bus together. I had to get up at 5am to take a shower, pack my bag, and catch the subway in time. It was an early morning, but totally worth it!

We got on the bus and took the very last row, with five seats across the back. That left us with an extra seat to put all our stuff in and spread out a bit. It took about two hours to get out there, and it rained the whole way!! Fortunately for us, it stopped just as we were pulling in...yes!! We went right over to the hut to get our life jackets, helmets, and oars. They explained the basic instructions, which were in Korean of course, then we loaded up on the bus! The bus ride was just up the road, so it didn't matter that we were squished in like sardines with all our gear. :)

Johnny, Mi-yeon, Abby, and I were in the same boat together, so that was fun! It was super busy yesterday, and there were tons of groups there, so we were definitely rushed down the river. Last year when we went, we got a lot of time to get out of the boat and swim around, and we could jump off a cliff into the water about halfway through. This year, the guide told us it would take too long to wait, so we had to keep going. While it was a quick trip down the river, our boatmates and guide were really fun. We had three people in the boat who could speak fluent Korean, so the guide would talk in Korean, and one of the three would translate for the rest of us. The guide was young, around our age, so when we would all start speaking English, he would say in Korean that he felt really left out. It was funny! He was a great sport though, and they tried to translate back into Korean for him so he could feel included. :)

After rafting was finished, we changed and got on the bus to go to the BBQ place. We had pork (from America!), rice, soup, salad, and some sides. We wrapped the meat in pieces of lettuce and ate it. SO GOOD!! After lunch, we got back on the bus to head home. It took us 2 and a half hours to get back home because of traffic, but all of us passed out the whole way! We were wiped out after rafting, our tummies were full, and we had big comfy seats. What else were we gonna do, right? :)

When we got back into Gangnam, we went to Jamba Juice and had a pre-dinner snack. We just wanted to talk a bit more before we headed home. It was a tiring day, and I was happy, but I was also ready to head home, shower, and crash. A good day with good friends. :)

Korean Independence Day.

On Tuesday night after work, I took a subway and a bus to Suwon to meet up at my old academy. My old co-workers were going out to celebrate Darren's birthday, and he invited me to go. I was so excited!! I arrived at the school around 7:30pm, just as their last classes were getting out. Perfect timing.

For his birthday, Darren wanted to go to Outback Steakhouse, so we all headed over there after they closed the academy down. (Darren had Room 5, the "in trouble" room, so he had to wait there for the kids to finish their work.) We had a reservation, so the rest of us went there and started eating and drinking. Darren didn't end up getting to Outback until about an hour later, so that was kind of a bummer! We just ordered more drinks and food when he got there though, so it was fine! :)

We hung out at the restaurant for awhile. It was really great to catch up with everyone and see people. I met the new Korean teacher, Aile, pronounced (Ay-lee). Anyway, she lived in the States for like 6 years, so she has perfect English. She's young, and easy to talk to. We talked to each other a lot and hit it off right away. We're gonna be friends on Facebook and hopefully meet up soon!

After dinner, Amanda, Abby, and I were ready to keep the party going, but everyone else was exhausted from the week. We didn't have school the next day because it was Korean Independence Day, so we could potentially stay out as late as we wanted. But, everyone was tired, so we all parted ways...bummer.

Amanda, Abby, and I went for some ice cream at Baskin' Robbins when we got back. Then, Amanda and I headed back to her place. She was nice enough to let me crash there! We talked for a bit, and were ready to watch a movie. But, by the time we downloaded it, we were both falling asleep. By then it was almost 3am, so it's understandable, right?

The next morning, Amanda and I caught the bus around 11:30am, and headed into Gangnam. We wanted to go to a really great breakfast place called Butterfingers. They serve American-style breakfast, with foods that you just can't find in Korea! Except for there... :) So, I had a Belgium waffle and hash browns, and Amanda had pancakes, sausage, and eggs. So delicious!!

After breakfast (at 1pm!), we decided to see what was playing in the theaters. What I've failed to mention until now, is that there was a TYPHOON happening outside!! Monsoon season is officially over, but over the past few days, it's been randomly pouring outside, and it comes out of nowhere! We were particularly bummed because it was a holiday, and rain really puts a damper on things. Anyway, we saw that Step Up 4 was playing, but not until 6pm. We brainstormed ideas of what to do for a few hours while we waited.

I remembered there was a board game cafe nearby, so we decided to do that. We fought through the rain and found the cafe nearly empty, which was nice. We ordered coffee and got a board game from downstairs to pass the time. It was really nice to just relax and warm up after being rained on all day. Both of our phones were dying, so we took them to the front desk downstairs and asked them to plug them in for us. (That's a really great thing about Korea! Pretty much any cafe or restaurant you go into, you can give them your phone and they'll charge it for free...even if you don't have your charger!) Awesome, right?! I think so. Before we knew it, a few hours had passed, so we packed up our board game, got our phones back, and headed back to the theater. Step Up 4 was really fun, and we really enjoyed it! It was a great way to spend a holiday in the middle of the week! Only two more days, and then the weekend! :)

Magic Mike.

On Sunday, Abby, Arri, Mi-yeon, and I met at Dos Tacos before church. It was the first time Abby met the other two, so that was cool! We enjoyed our usual burritos and good talk, and then headed to church. Church was really good, as usual, and the message was just what I needed to hear. It wasn't the typical funny sermon that we're used to hearing from Pastor Doug, but it was still really good. I could tell he was passionate about what he was speaking on, and had really done a lot of research. I gained a new perspective in hearing that sermon, and it's just really refreshing when that happens.

After church, we decided that we wanted to see a movie: Magic Mike. If you haven't heard of this, it's the new Channing Tatum movie, with Matthew McConaughey. It was exactly what we were expecting for an R-rated movie, but it was much more hilarious than we expected!! (And when I say "NEW MOVIE," I mean new for Korea. It takes us a while to get movies here...) Anyway, our movie didn't start until 7:50pm, so we decided to go to a board game cafe while we waited.

Abby had to go home, so it was just Arri, Mi-yeon, and me. We went to the cafe, ordered some drinks, and picked out Rummikub. This is definitely one of my favorite games, and this is why: It's not an extremely competitive game, and it's kind of relaxing. It requires a lot of thinking, but none of us felt like playing a fast-paced, competitive game. We stayed in the cafe for a few hours playing the game and chatting, until around dinnertime.

For dinner, we decided to go to Black Smith, a new grill restaurant that opened up in Korea. The girls ordered pizza, and I ordered a big chicken caesar salad. Mmm!! Whenever I have the opportunity to order salad somewhere, I jump all over it! It's so hard to find a fresh salad anywhere here.

After that, we jumped on the bus and went to Apgujeong, where the movie was playing. We ended up arriving pretty early, so we wandered around until we found a place to get ice cream. It was a good dessert after our food. Perfect.

When it was time for our movie, we headed back to the theater. As I've mentioned before, Korea is famous for its interesting popcorn selections at their movie theaters. Mi-yeon went with normal (boring!), I went for Sweet Caramel, and Arri got half Cheese, half Onion. (She's a bit too adventurous for me!) Then, we headed inside.

When the movie was over, we headed to the subway station and parted ways. After a long day, I was ready to get back home and prepare myself for another week of teaching. :)

"Take me out to the ball game!"

(This past week has been crazy busy, so I finally took some time to sit down and blog again. Hopefully these next few entries will catch me up to today!)

On Saturday, I met Mi-yeon at Times Square, one of the biggest shopping malls in Korea! They are known for their shopping and diverse food. We weren’t there to shop. We were there for some “On the Border.” I’m not sure if you’re familiar with this restaurant, but it’s a Mexican restaurant from back home. Delicious.

Mi-yeon and I met up at noon to grab lunch. We both had crazy weeks, so we just wanted to relax and enjoy some good company and good food. Mi-yeon ordered enchiladas, and I order quesadillas. I can’t even remember the last time I had a quesadilla. For our pre-meal snack, we even got real nacho chips, like the ones from back home! (Those are pretty difficult to come by here.)

We talked about our crazy weeks, and just got caught up on life. It was really good to relax and just de-stress. After we finished eating, we decided to take a walk around Times Square. Mi-yeon lives only a few subway stops away so she goes there often, but this was my first time. It was quite the experience!! There were the typical popular Korean stores, but they also had quite a few stores from back home. We ducked in a few, just to look around. We also did a lot of window shopping. We weren’t there to buy anything, so it was fun to just bum around. One thing that Mi-yeon and I both share is a love for scrapbooking! Cheesy, I know. Every time we saw a crafty kind of store, we just HAD to stop in and check out the fun ribbon, decorative paper, and fun cut-outs they had.

After a few hours, we headed back to the subway station….to go to the baseball stadium! This was my first Korean baseball game ever! For those of you who know me well, baseball is definitely NOT one of my favorite sports. In fact, it probably wouldn’t even make the list for a sport I would ever spend any time watching, playing, or even hearing about. However, in Korea, baseball is THE sport! I had heard that the atmosphere at a Korean baseball game is completely different than one found back home. So, I thought I’d give Korean baseball a try. Luckily for me, the company Mi-yeon works for was giving out free tickets, and she asked me to go with her! Because it was free, I could enjoy the game, and not feel like I wasted money in case I ended up not having a good time. Win win!

The baseball game was SO FUN!! The atmosphere was similar to the atmosphere at a football game back home. Everyone was standing the entire time, and yelling all during the game. They had chants for different things that were happening, and even had the vuvuzuelas and those inflatable bat things that you hit together. So fun! After about an inning or so, I was already picking up some of the Korean chants and joining in. Mi-yeon and I had a blast! Our team ended up losing, but neither one of us particularly cared. For me, it was all about the experience. And my experience was awesome. I will most DEFINITELY go to another Korean baseball game. And now that I’ve been, I know it’s worth paying for!

Disaster Strikes!

Today was supposed to be one of my easier days. I get to go into work late and leave early on Tuesdays and Thursdays. When I woke up this morning, I was anticipating a relaxing day. Little did I know how wrong I would be...

My first two classes I teach are Science classes. You'd think this would be quite simple, but here are the facts.
Fact #1: The A/C went out yesterday in the three middle classrooms, so since then, we've had to combine two classes together in the playroom at the end of the hall, rotating out every 40 minutes. The playroom is quite large, and you can probably imagine what kind of exciting distractions are in there...(slides, toys, monkey bars, Legos, sponge blocks...). Ideally, two classes go into the playroom and face in opposite directions, in the hopes that the lesson can still be taught and the children will be focused.
Fact #2: Science class doesn't involve a book of any sort, or even much discussion at all. It's purely hands-on, arts and crafts kinds of activities, where the students learn through making something and using it.
Fact #3: My students are 4- and 5-year-olds.
Fact #4: Today...we made bottle rockets...

As you can see, this was a complete disaster waiting to happen. I managed to keep my students focused for the first half of the lesson. We went step-by-step, only taking rockets pieces out of our bags when Jamie Teacher took them out of her bag. The students were SO EXCITED because I had demonstrated what their rocket would look like at the end. I even shot the rocket off once so the students would be more engaged and motivated to make one of their own. We had just finished putting all the pieces together, when the last piece came out of the bag. This piece required those sticky dots that come pre-stamped on a slip of paper. The students tried to take the sticky dots off themselves, but soon realized they would need my help. While I was helping other students, two of them decided they would wander over to the playground area and check out the monkey bars. I was able to call them back over and get them focused again, only to find that the students who had finished were now shooting their rockets off all over the room, with no care at all about the other class in the playroom. Students began arguing over whose rocket was whose, and then...the tears came.

I quickly managed to organize the class into separate lines, and we had everyone count down together from five. Then, one at a time, each person would shoot off their rocket, and we would measure how far it went. The kids were really into it and couldn't WAIT to have a turn! And then, I was saved by the bell! Another one of those Science classes was next, but at least I had learned from my first time around, right?

By the time I finished my second Science class, I was completely exhausted. Luckily for me, the students were having a great time making the rockets, and they were so happy. And...it was my lunch time. I went to lunch with Angie Teacher, the one who goes to the same church as me. We took a break and relaxed a bit after we finished lunch. Then, it was back to the school!

My next two classes were Arts and Crafts. I TOLD you Tuesdays and Thursdays were supposed to be easier for me, right?! No. Way. I taught Arts and Crafts, and we were making caterpillars today. I read The Very Hungry Caterpillar book to the students first, and then we made our own caterpillars. Of course, we can't possibly just have a pre-cut caterpillar with glued on legs. Nooo....We have to use scissors (a skill that my students have yet to fully master) to cut out the bubble-shaped caterpillar body. No straight lines, all curves. After we finish THAT, we can't just glue on some legs and be done. Nooo...we have to use metal brads and individually attach each leg to the body, without poking any extra holes in the caterpillar or tearing a leg. And, obviously, my kids can't do this on their own without ripping anything. This Arts and Crafts activity quickly became the Jamie Teacher activity, while the students lost interest. Wonderful. Perhaps next time I'll have to create my own caterpillar that's much easier for my students to put together. At least their mommies and daddies will be proud! :)

After Arts and Crafts, I had a break. Lisa Teacher and I escaped to a coffee shop close-by. We talked about how ridiculous these Science classes and Arts and Crafts activities are. They are very impressive when they're finished, but definitely not practical or age-appropriate for our students.

My last two classes of the day were older students who had BOOKS!! :) They went by very smoothly, and all the students were really focused. In my last class, we finished reviewing for their test later this week, so we played a board game. It was really fun, and I realized how competitive they were! They took the game very seriously and didn't cut each other any slack if they mispronounced a word or used strange words in a sentence. Little did they know, I had created this board game as another way for them to practice for their test. I think it was so effective, I'll start using these kinds of board games on all their review days. It proved to be quite helpful!

At 5:15pm, I was basically running from the Teacher Room to head home. It had been a long, exhausting day, and I was ready to relax. I went home, made dinner, and watched a movie on my computer. When my movie finished, I got up to wash my dishes. Washing dishes soon turned into completely cleaning the entire kitchen, going through all the cabinets, and reorganizing the shelves. This was a task I had been putting off since I'd moved into my apartment. It was a complete mess, and I didn't know where to start with any of it. For some reason, I decided that tonight would be a good time to do it. Two hours later, I now have a clean, organized kitchen. I'm even more tired, but it's been a really productive day. I'm thankful that my Tuesday's over, and I'm looking forward to tomorrow!! :)

Scrapbooking.

Today, I met Abby in Gangnam for lunch at Dos Tacos before church. Mi-yeon was supposed to meet up with us, but something came up, so she had to miss church. After lunch, Abby and I went to church. As usual, the service was GREAT! I walked away with so much to think about and pray about this week. I love it when that happens.

When the service was over, the church staff reminded us to sign up for the white water rafting trip that's coming up in two weeks. Abby and I both had our money with us, so we went straight to the table to sign up. While I was there, I signed up Johnny (and Mi-yeon since she couldn't make it) for the rafting trip, as well as myself. For $40, we get a day of rafting, including a BBQ lunch and transportation there and back. Sounds like a good deal to me!

After church, Abby and I went to Kyobo Tower. She needed some pens and things for school, and I needed a scrapbook. While I was home, I went on Snapfish (shout out!!), and printed off about 300 photos from my last year in Korea. I wanted to make a scrapbook, but hadn't been able to find one since I'd been back. Kyobo came through, as usual, and I found the exact kind I was looking for! A big one, with enough for three photos per page, and in pink. :)

While I was in the bookstore, I ran into Reuel, who I haven't seen in ages! I saw her about a week before I left to go home, and when I got back to Korea, she left on a vacation...So it was a lovely reunion after being apart for over a month! We chatted for a bit, I introduced her to Abby, and then we all parted ways, with promises to keep in touch and potentially meet up this week.

I was SO PUMPED to go home and start working on my scrapbook!! I stopped for dinner on my way home, so I wouldn't have to interrupt my scrapbooking time when I got hungry. (I'm serious when it comes to scrapbooking!) :) I called Johnny, and we talked for about an hour. Then, I started on my scrapbooking. I worked on my scrapbook for HOURS, seriously, while watching TV shows on my computer. It was a great afternoon/night in to myself. I really enjoyed going through all my photos and reflecting on this past year. I'm hoping this year will be another year of success, great friends, and good experiences!!

DVD Room.

Today, Saturday, I woke up really early with no alarm. I took my time getting out of bed, and then texted Amanda to find out what she was doing. She had no plans, so we decided to meet in Gangnam for lunch and a movie.

At 1pm, we met up and walked to the theater to see what movies were playing. We wanted to buy our tickets early, in case the tickets sold out quickly. Unfortunately, only the Batman movie was playing. All the rest were Korean movies that we weren’t interested in seeing. We knew of one other theater in town, so we walked over there to see if they were playing anything different. Same thing. So, we decided to find somewhere to eat and make another plan for the afternoon.

Both of us agreed. Western food. After eating Korean food for every meal all week, we are both ready to eat Western food by the time the weekend rolls around. We decided on Dos Tacos, (which is where I’ll be going tomorrow for lunch, too!), but I don’t mind. They make some YUMMY burritos!

After lunch, we walked next door to Kyobo Tower where the big bookstore is. I wanted to find another Korean study book, and Amanda wanted to look for a book as well. We spent a little bit of time in there, and we both found exactly what we were looking for! I’ve been needing a new study book, and now that I’m back in Korea, I’m motivated to start learning and pushing myself again.

After we bought our books, we decided to go to a DVD room. Amanda has gone to plenty in the past, but this was my first DVD room experience. I was pumped. We found one near the restaurant and headed upstairs. When we got inside, there were walls of movies, any movie you could want. Korean and English, and in every genre. We decided on a Liam Neeson movie. We were both in the mood for something action-y and scary. We took the movie up to the counter, paid our money to rent a room, and we were escorted into our own personal movie theater.

There was a HUGE couch and a wall-to-wall flat screen TV!! We had brought snacks with us, so we broke those open, made ourselves comfortable, and waited for the movie to start. It was so wonderful! We had an air-conditioned room with comfortable seating AND a ginormous TV all to ourselves. Well done, Korea!!

Amanda says she sometimes gets some of her girlfriends together, and they all have a movie night. What a great idea! And it’s cheap, too! When the movie was over, it was dinnertime, so we both headed home. Amanda had plans to meet another friend, and I wanted a night in to myself. What a relaxing and wonderful Saturday!

EVERLAND.

On Thursday, I went to Everland, the biggest amusement park in Korea. I met Fahmida and two of her co-workers, Allen and Steph, in Gangnam to catch the bus. We met early so we could get to the park and be at the front of the lines. Also, we purposely chose a Thursday because we figured it would be less busy that day since everyone would be working.

We caught the bus around 9:30am, and headed to Everland. The bus ride was about an hour, so it wasn’t bad. Fortunately for us, we all got seats, even though the bus was packed. Some people were standing up in the aisle and holding onto the handrails the whole way. That reeks!

When we got to the park, we showed our ARCs, Alien Registration Cards, and were told we would get a discount. So exciting! When the cashier rung us up, it ended up being a 50% off discount. WOW!! So, you know how much I paid to get into Everland? $20. Yep. Truth.

We immediately headed to the back of the park where all THREE roller coasters are. We rode them, which were fun, but not as exciting as we anticipated. We rode some other spinning rides and rode the log flume twice. Those were as expected. I didn’t have any expectations because I come from the land of Disney World. However, this park was pretty boring, to be honest. At the end of the day, we all agreed that we were happy it was only $20.

Back to Suwon.

On Wednesday, I woke up early and went to the National Police Hospital to do my health check. I did this last year when I first arrived in Korea, so I didn’t think I would have to do this again. However, because I went back to the States on vacation, it was required. Luckily for me, the hospital was only 20 minutes away by subway, so I arrived there in no time.

When I walked in, I went to the information desk and asked where I should go for the foreigner health check. The man pointed me in some direction behind him, and moved on to the next person. Helpful. I wandered in that direction, eventually going down a hallway. I had NO idea where I was going, and there were so many different signs at every doorway. I finally just decided to choose one and hope that someone spoke English.

I walked in and there was a younger man at the counter. (Normally in Korea, that means they probably speak a little bit of English, since the language is becoming more popular to learn, especially around University age.) After giving him my passport and telling him I needed a foreigner health check, he asked me to call someone who could speak Korean. I called the secretary at my school, since she is working this whole week. When she answered, I asked her to talk to him. They worked everything out, and it turns out, I was in the right place after all! Apparently, the man was checking to make sure I needed a foreigner health check for working and not a foreigner health check the military. Those are two different things, requiring different tests. I’m really glad he double-checked!

Once I was checked in, I went from room to room, with NONE of the doctors speaking English! They didn’t use any hand motions, and they talked really fast, so I had no chance of trying to understand anything they were saying. In the first room, they weighed me, checked my height, and tested my hearing and eyesight. In the next room, they took a full-body x-ray. In the last room, they took my blood and did a urine test. When I finished everything, I was sent back to the original room where I was checked in. The same man helped me. When I was standing at the counter, he was giving me my passport back and giving me information about when to pick up my test results. I immediately started feeling dizzy and sat down right away. I think it was from the blood test, because I’ve never really handled blood well.

The man came out from behind the counter and gave me some water. He took me to a room where there was a bed and told me to stay in there for a few minutes and rest. I stayed in there for about 15 minutes until my head stopped pounding and until I cooled off some. When I started getting dizzy earlier, my whole body got hot really fast, so I’m pretty sure I almost passed out. Scary. Anyway, I drank a few more cups of water, and then left the hospital. After that, I went home and took a 3-hour nap. I was completely wiped out after that health check.

Around 2:30pm, I left my apartment and headed to Suwon. I was going to my old school to visit Darren and my previous co-teachers. The only person who knew about my visit was Amanda, and she kept it a secret! Now that I live in Seoul, it takes me FOREVER to get back to Suwon and to Johnny’s area of town. While that is really lame, I REALLY love living in Seoul!!

After a 30-minute subway ride and an hour-long bus ride, I finally arrived in my old neighborhood in Suwon. I stopped by a donut shop to get some donuts for the teachers. When I walked into the school, Darren and Gun were so surprised to see me! It was really great to catch up with the teachers and see some of my old students! The students were so surprised and so many of them were taking out their phones and asking for pictures. I felt like such a celebrity! When the teachers had to teach, I sat at the front desk with Darren and caught up with him. It was great to see him.

When classes were finished at 7:45pm, Darren, Amanda, and I went to a local BBQ place and had some dinner. We stayed there for a few hours and ate and drank and just talked. It was really good to see both of them and to catch up on the last month. They are planning a work dinner for Abby, the new girl who replaced me, and Darren asked me if I would go. I’m so excited! That will be fun. At around 10pm, I decided that I should probably head home, since it was a long trip back. Darren ended up paying for our dinner, so that was a really nice surprise! I’m really looking forward to seeing everyone again soon.

Moving Day!!

Tuesday was my first day of summer vacation. While my friends were sleeping in and relaxing, I was preparing for a big day…moving day! Before I left for the States, I moved out of my old apartment so the girl replacing me could move in. Darren helped me move all my stuff, (since he has a car!), and I had a TON of stuff. I had a few suitcases with clothes and shoes, kitchen stuff, and bedding, including a comforter, memory foam pad, sheets, two pillows, a Spiderman body pillow, and two blankets. We managed to fit all of this into Darren’s car, with plenty of room to spare. Anyway, I moved all of this to Johnny’s while I went on vacation back home. When I moved into my new place here in Seoul, I had to somehow get my stuff from Johnny’s to here.

I mentioned it to my new director, and she immediately called a taxi company and scheduled an appointment for me. So, I took a combination of subways and a bus to get to Johnny’s house on Tuesday. Unfortunately for me, he wasn’t on vacation yet, so I had to move all my stuff down 9 floors by myself! It only took me 7 trips….I waited in the lobby until the taxi driver arrived at 2pm. However, when the taxi driver arrived, I told him I had bags and asked him if he would help me. He seemed surprised to hear that I had bags, but it didn’t register at the time as being a big deal. When I showed him my pile of belongings in the lobby, he immediately got angry. Every bad word I know in Korean came out of his mouth, and he was not happy.

When we carried the first load out to the car, he opened his trunk, and I realized the problem. His trunk was completely full with random boxes and bags. So, we had to squeeze everything into the back seat of his taxi. I kept apologizing over and over, but he wasn’t having it. When we were finally on our way to Seoul, I texted my director and told her that the taxi driver was really angry, and I wasn’t sure why. She immediately called my phone and asked to talk to the taxi driver. Come to find out, the taxi company never told the driver he would be helping someone move, so he didn’t know he should have an empty car. If he had known that, another taxi driver would’ve been sent to help me. All in all, I think it wasn’t a big deal, but the taxi driver was just upset that he hadn’t been informed. After he and my director talked, he was perfectly fine. He just needed an explanation, and my Korean obviously isn’t good enough to express the situation.

When I got to my apartment, the driver helped me unload my stuff, and one of my co-teachers, Ian, met me. He helped me carry my stuff up to my apartment. I told him I owe him a coffee one of these days for helping me move on his vacation. After that, I spent the rest of the afternoon unpacking and organizing my apartment. It wasn’t the smoothest day, but at least I got it all finished. Now I can officially get situated and start making this apartment my home for the next year!