Welcome Back World!

So this week has been pretty good. I got my diploma back, and my classes went well (except for you know when). Christina and I went to look for cellphones on Wednesday but there was such a big language barrier, we just left frustrated and phone-less.
I still don't have a computer in my classroom, but I did take some pictures of it to show you what it looks like.

I told you it was small. But it's good for me. I can say "My classroom." I also took some pictures of my EC3 class (yea, one of my classes who wants to blow up Japan, do away with Lee Myung-bak and also Bushy (as they call him).

*Them being nosey. Someone was getting yelled at in the hallway**My chicken lover, Pi, drawing you guessed it...a chicken on the board*

I've also been eating quite well. My trips to E-mart and Costco have left me happy. Mommy also sent me brown rice, flavored rice, and tasty kakes so I'm in hog heaven!

Wednesday was my anniversary with Kory. It was really hard being away and there was a problem with communication, but it was worked out. The day was good. We had bagels for breakfast and penne pasta for dinner. I got dressed up and curled my hair. Kory also got my present and he seemed to really like it so I'm happy.

Christina and I decided to give looking for a cell phone another try (3rd times a charm)... and we got them! Yes, I am an official member of LGTelecom (LG...Life's Good!). And my phone only cost 10,000 won, which is about 7 USD. And it's a new phone. I bought a phone number on skype so everyone at home, to call me you won't have to pay the international fee. Just call my skype number and it will be like you're calling me in NJ. I am officially reconnected to the Cell Phone Community! I missed you all.

My grandma is a little sick so please pray for her. She'll be ok, but I don't like it when someone is sick, and now that I'm on the other side of the world and can't do anything, I really don't like it. I'm just glad that she'll be fine.

I went to look for somewhere to take Korean classes but so far, classes have already started and I won't be able to join a class until January. But Christina is taking one so whatever she learns she will pass on to me. I definately need to know how to say more than "thank you." But a good thing is that there is an English-Korean translator on my cell phone. So I will be using that quite often.

I performed my civic duty today! I received my absentee ballot in the mail on Tuesday. Because I am in an Asian country, I was able to FedEx my ballot back for free!! Now, don't ask me what an Asian country has to do with American voting...I don't know. It was free and the Board of Elections will have it tomorrow. So who cares!? I also watched the last presidential debate Thursday morning. I'm very happy that Obama didn't talk about past administration, just about his plans which was good. And I dunno, maybe I'm being biased, but McCain can't hear. Every time Obama answered a claim he made, he would respond as if Obama never spoke on the topic. And this is who some people want for president?? An old fogy who needs to change his hearing aid battery? (And please, I am not dissing people with hearing aids, I need one at times)

Him and his pit bull need to go enter the Kentucky Derby because all they're good for is running their mouth.

Anyway... I know I've been jumping from one thing to the other in this entry. I've been having a little trouble focusing lately. I figure I just need a little more sleep.

I hope everyone is doing well. I miss you very much. I'm bout to go eat and watch some Gilmore Girls.

Until Next Time!

HAPPT 1ST ANNIVERSARY!!

So today is Kory and I's first anniversary!! So sorry readers, this entry is only for one person...

Happy Anniversary my Sweet Love!
For you, I thank the Lord above
You’ve given me hope, inspiration and truth
Because of you I feel never-ending youth
When heavy storms have come our way
Your love has always made me stay
Each morning I wish I could see your face
I know in you, I’ve found my place
Our bond is extraordinary, beautiful, and real
It’s remarkable how wonderful you make me feel
We belong together, you and I
That, the world cannot deny
Never in my life will I find another guy
Who could ever fulfill me the way you can
The times we’ve shared this past year
Has proved forever it shall persevere
I will love you forever in every way
That will remain constant until my dying day.



Happy First Anniversary Kory!!
It's the First of Many <3

<3one>

What A Week!

I know this entry comes very late but I've been really busy and haven't had adequate time to write an entry that would make you proud.
So the last time I wrote I told you about my demon children from H***. Well, when I went to school, i looked at the class list and they had cut my class in half. I was so thrilled, but I noticed I had one of the worst MFers in the class and one other like jerk. I also had the majority of the girls. And you know how preteen/early teenage girls can be. (its the same in every country). But whatever, the class was half the size and with only two really bad kids, it wasn't going to be too bad. And it wasn't.
Saturday I went out with Christina and Kara (another girl from training). We went to Itaewon and found this little French restaurant. Christina and I shared a couples meal...Soup, bread, salad, appetizer (salmon), salami pizza, pasta, sorbet, and then our main course (that's right we didn't even have the main dish yet!) muro steak something or another. Now we both thought it was beef. Something should have told me otherwise when they asked Kara how she wanted her NY Strip steak cooked and didn't glance our away. I was so preoccupied with all the food. If you don't know, I LOVE FOOD! But anyway, it turned out that our Muro steak was actually fish. Whatever, I didn't care. At least it wasn't chicken!! We also had a glass of wine with our meal. After we finished the main course, we had dessert, creme brulet (I know I can't spell so I don't need you to point it out), and our choice of hot or iced coffee or green tea. And the grand total for this dinner...$42,000 won (21,000 each so about 19 USD)! Yea, so you know my greedy self will be going back!
After dinner, we met up with one ok Kara's Korean friends (and two of his friends) that she was teaching English to. We went to an American bar and I had a strawberry banana daiquiri. I saw someone order french fries and I promise you they were calling my name...Avi, Avi, Avi (or maybe that was my conscience telling me not to eat another D*** thing). I couldn't help it. They looked so good. And if you know me, I love french fries. I think that was probably the only thing I ever ate in the cafe in high school and college... that and ice cream. So what did greedy Avi do??? That's right I ordered those french fries. OMG They were delicious!
So after we talked and watched the Korean people dance to Ja Rule and other Hip Hop music (that in itself was hilarious) Christina, Kara and I left because we didn't want to miss the last subway train. On our way to the station what did greedy Avi see??? COLDSTONE! Yup, I went and got some ice cream. I need to be shamed. The amount of food I consumed was ridiculous (but in my defense, none of it was American portions. Go to a restaurant in the States and cut the dinner plate in half. that's about how much I had).
So after our stop at Coldstone, we went to the subway and Kara accidentally got on the wrong train! We were supposed to be on that train and she was supposed to be on the train going in the opposite direction...OOPPS! I did find out she made it home safely thank goodness.
I hurried home because I was looking forward to watching the HU vs DSU game on the internet. Yea, Hampton is supposed to be on there ISH. But I was thinking that it was 1pm at home but it was actually 11am. so I had two hours to sit up and wait for the game to start so I prepped my lessons for Mon-Wed. And then came time for the game... I thought Hampton had its ISH together but clearly I was mistaken. Why would they change now?? They were having some technical difficulties but promised to have them worked out for the next away game on Oct. 25. FU Hampton! Not really though. I love my Alma Mater. So what did I do instead? I watched the scoreboard on ESPNU.com. It wasn't much, but I was getting real time updates. Around 6:45am my time, Hampton had one the game 17-14. It was way too close if you ask me, but hey they won so I was happy.
Sunday, I went to E-mart with Andrea. I was so excited because I was going to get food other than chicken! We caught the bus outside of school and it took us about 15 minutes to get there. We walked in on the clothing level and went downstairs with our carts and it was just as packed as it was the last time but we were able to navigate the isles to get the things we needed. There were a lot of people throughout the store offering us things to try. "No thank you, I don't care for squid" and "Umm, that dried fish crap sure does look tasty, but I'm a landatarian." Were things I found myself saying. But the sweet potato bread was good. I would have gotten it but they have it at the Paris Bagget around the corner from me. At the end of our shopping trip, I had beef, pork, CHICKEN (can't seem to let it go), salad and salad dressing, corn and pepper salad, swweet potato salad, limeade, lemonade, and grapefruit juice, chip, cheese tortillas and nacho cheese dip, tomato sauce, pineapples, shredded cheese, soup, peach ice tea mix, cinnamon raisin bagels, ziploc bags and containers and some other little things. total $78,000 won. Not bad I think. And if you don't have something to carry your food home it, you have to buy bags. That seems to be the case everywhere here, but we were prepared. We got back on the bus and after a couple stops went our separate ways. I went to Paris Bagget to get some bread, milk and popsicles. They were cheaper there and the bread is really fresh. I then walked home, put my food away (had to squeeze most of it in the fridge since the darn thing is so tiny) and went to my little corner store to get butter. It was 6,000 won at E-mart and I'll be you know what if I pay that much for some animal fat. Three little stores later I finally found some (I'm telling you there is nothing in my neighborhood)! GEESH! I also got some fresh peaches from the fruit stand and went back home. I'm soo excited! I have real food to eat now...and choices other than chicken. I didn't do much else on Sunday. Just relaxed.
I woke up to an unusual sound on Monday. It sounded like a doorbell but I don't have one. I laid in the bed for a couple of minutes and decided to go and see what it was. I went out to the main door and saw the mail man's scooter outside but no mail man. A couple minutes later he came walking down the steps and told me he had left a box with one of my neighbors. I ran upstairs to get it and it was a package from mommie! She sent me some seasonings, brown sugar, and dvds. YAY! I made breakfast and had to leave my apt. early because I had to go to the stationary store which is two subway trains away from my house. There were some things that I had to pick up so I did that and then headed for school. When I got there, I found that two of the classrooms had been remodeled and there was a new one... random, seeing as though it was not like that on Saturday. I guess in Korea, they work fast. I didn't pay it too much mind because I was upstairs on Monday. Since I am a new teacher and came late, I don't have my own classroom so everyday I'm in a different classroom. Since one of the teachers was still on vacation, I had to sub for his class and another teacher took mine. I had to sub for him on Friday too. But I'm kind of fond of my classes on Monday/Friday so I was a little upset, and the class I subbed for was blah. They didn't really care about anything.
I went to school on Tuesday and since my Tuesday/Thursday Classrooms are always different, I went to the secretary to ask which classroom I was supposed to be in and she took me to the new classroom that was built. It's MY classroom!! No more changing!I finally have my own room. Its small but that just means that a lot of my classes have to be cut down cause all of the kids won't fit. And yes... my Tues/Thurs demons will be demons no more. The cut they made last week is permanent!! The little jerks are gone (except for one but you don't see me complaining)!!!
Wednesday, I woke up to the same "doorbell" I heard on Monday. Turns out, its my intercom phone ringing. It was the mail man. He had another package for me! This time it was from Kory! I opened it and he sent me a yoga ball with the dvd. I had been putting off buying it when I was home but really did want it and I've really been wanting to do some exercising but since I can't use my Wii Fit, I've kinda been inactive. He always knows what I need. was my 1/2 day so I worked for 3 hours and went home to make some spaghetti. Well, the meat turned out great, the tomato sauce was really tomato paste, and the noodles melted into a big glob (obviously, those weren't the noodles I wanted). I picked out the noodles that hadn't melted and threw the rest in the trash, mixed it together with my meat and paste and it wasn't too bad. I had that with some salad and garlic bread. Yup, since E-mart, I've been moving on up!
I made breakfast this morning (something that I've been doing every morning) and had to leave early to go to immigration. I applied for my Alien Registration Card 3 weeks ago and didn't get it back. So Janice called them yesterday and they told me to come in today. Andrea had told me about her horror stories there and how she still hasn't been able to apply and I was all ready to go "Medea" on those people.
I went in and took a number and surprisingly, it was the next number to be called. So I went up there, told the under dressed woman in the simplest English I could think of my situation and a couple minutes another girl comes over and shows me the slip I filled out 3 weeks ago with my address telling them to mail the card to me. I tell her that was three weeks ago and she says "It was September 19th." Yes ho! THAT WAS THREE WEEKS AGO!! Where the H*** is my card and passport (immigration keeps your passport to process your paperwork so I've been without international id for 3 weeks!!)!!??! She tells me she's going to go track it with the number and to have a seat.
Five minutes later she tells me that no one was home for the mail man to deliver it so they sent it back to immigration. BOOTY!!! But whatever. She tells me to go upstairs to get it from the delivery office. I go up there and no one speaks English!! How the H*** do you work at an immigration office and don't speak English!!? UGH!! I went back downstairs and told that BS'n woman that no one speaks English so she sent someone up there who came back with an unmarked envelope.
I looked at my ARC and it had Sept. 29th as the issue date. "So you gonna tell me that this was mailed on the 29th, the mail man tried to deliver it three times, sent it back to you, and its been sitting here since at least Tuesday!!?" She just looked at me like I was crazy. "Yea, I bet you don't speak any English now." 1. her story is BS. mail doesn't work that fast. 2. If that is true they had my number. Did they think to call me? But thankfully, its done and over with.
I went to school and didn't have too bad of a class. I found out that if you threaten to make the boys sit next to the girls and vise versa, they shut up real quick. But I did yell shut up at one boy and slam my hand on the desk. Then 2 seconds later I was all nice and pleasant so I think I scared them a little. They also wanted to see a picture of my boyfriend. So I showed it to them... they didn't didn't know he was a football player. I told them he would fight whoever didn't be quiet when he came and I'm pretty sure they think I'm serious. I think that's another reason why they shut up. Or maybe its just my imagination.
So I think I caught you up on my "Seoul Happenings." The reason why I've been so delinquent in my writings is because I'm preparing Kory's anniversary present. In less than one week, we will have been together for a year. We had a lot of ups, some downs, and major tests along the way but with God's help, we made it our first year! I can't tell you what I'm getting him because he is reading, but I'll let you know next week.
So as you can tell, my expansion is continuing and the trough is clearly over. I haven't peaked yet but this is pretty darn good!
I'm thinking about making a video for one of my entries. What do you think? Yes or No?? Put your answer in a comment and I'll go from there.
I forgot to tell you, I saw a girl wearing a shirt that said "My Mexican works harder than your Mexican." I was floored when I saw that!! Wear that in the States and you A** will get jacked! I asked someone about it and they said that Korean buy anything with English written on it even when they don't know what it means!! All I know is let me see something with N***** on it, English or no English, someone will lose their life!!
Until Next Time!
BTW...I got my cell phone bill. I'm setting up PayPal on my blog and sending around that internet plate. So pass the plate! LOL! (I'm playing)

Nothing Much...

So nothing exciting has been going on. My voice is still hoarse and some mosquitoes tore my hands up last night. Its been pretty warm here. Yesterday was beautiful. 80 degrees and its supposed to be like that until Friday. Then the rain comes.
Anywho, today is Thursday (ugh!). I hate Tuesdays and Thursdays with I passion. I have my worst class on these days. Memory English Mega (the 7th - 9th graders). On Tuesday, they were out of control, and one boy put hiss foot in another boy's face. I yelled and asked him if he wanted me to put my foot in his face. He just looked at me. And I had to catch myself a couple times. I almost told them to SHUT THE F*** AND SIT THE H*** DOWN!!! Maybe I should have. I think I'm going to try cussing at them in Spanish. Maybe it will relieve the stress. I'm sure they're doing it in Korean. Yea. I think that's what I'll do. Every time I get the urge to smack one of those little A*SHOLES I'll just say "budah" (sp) or another choice word that I learned back in elementary school. And I'm sure that my English Chip class at 4pm will put me in a good mood. Enough so that I'll be able to cuss with a smile :)
My English Chip class are one of my classes that want to punch Lee Muyng-bak, blow up Japan, and get rid of Bush. They are so funny. There is also a girl, Pi, who loves chicken. Every time I ask her to make a sentence using one of our vocabulary words, she talks about chicken. How she likes it in her mouth. How it runs across her lips and in her stomach. Chicken, chicken, chicken. She is funny.
Oh, and my Monday/Friday Memory English Mega class wanted to know if I was from South Africa because we were studying the apartheid. After I told them no and showed them where I was from on the map, they still asked if I spoke Afrikcaans, if I was allowed to play with white kids, and if I knew Nelson Mandela. Geesh. I should have told them not all Black people live in Africa like all Asians don't live in Korea. Well, I'm sure it will come up again and I'll use my analogy.
I had some McDonald's yesterday. I had to go to the stationary store and there's a McDonald's a couple feet from there. I figured it was ok since I don't eat it often. It's my luxury since there isn't one anywhere close to where I live. I had chicken strips which are extremely spicy, fries, and a vanilla milkshake. Oh it was so good. I think my eyes rolled up into the back of my head as I was eating. I've been wanting sweet stuff and since my refrigerator is practically bare, I think it is time for me to go on a grocery run and sweets will be on the top of my list. Mommie sent me some stuff last week and this week she is sending me Tasty Kakes, sticky buns and cookies. I probably won't get until next week but I am so looking forward to it. And three of my bagels and my last muffin started to mold. I was so upset. It never dawned on me to put it in the fridge. I never had to at home, but I guess now I know.
I haven't gotten a good nights sleep since I've been here. I keeping waking up multiple times in the middle of the night. Why? I have no idea. And I don't want to become a slave to Tylenol PM but that's what it looks like it will come too. Does anyone have any suggestions? I'm welcome to anything... almost anything.
My first Anniversary is in a week and six days. It's a bitter sweet feeling because Kory and I have been together for a year and are still going strong but I can't be with him on that day. So it's exciting and a little depressing at the same time.
Have I told you about the lack of non-matching people I've seen during my 25 days here??!! I'm not talking about not matching your underwear to what you are wearing (that would just be asking way too much), and I know its OK to wear plum nail polish on your toes and red on your finger nails (Katt Williams told me so), but WHO TOLD THESE PEOPLE THAT FLORAL AND STRIPES MATCH!!!!!????!!!!! Are you kidding me?? Polk-a-dot and plaid, purple and orange, socks and heels!!! And some of them have the nerve to look at me on the subway with a stank face. Ho, have you looked in the mirror today?! WHAT YOU ARE WEARING IS STANK!! I think I need to make a color coded chart. Better yet, I'm going to report these people to TLC's "What Not To Wear." Clearly non of them have been to Seoul's Fashion Week.
OK...I'm sorry. I just really needed to vent about that for a minute. I'm not a shallow person, but I'm use to seeing people who take time and pick out their outfit in the morning or even the night before (I went to Hampton remember. Wearing pj's to class was against the "Standards of Excellence." And I'm sure so was Polk-a-dot and floral patterns on the same person at the same time).
Wow, I said I didn't have much to talk about but it seems as though I've found a couple things. I have to go now and get ready for school...UGH! Please pray that the 7-10 o'clock hours pass me by in haste.
And can someone please let me know if I can watch the VP debates anywhere online. That is something not to be missed.
Until Next Time!