myungdong

right now my barefeet are resting on this cool dorm floor, and it feels so good. the veins running to my toes are throbbing like mad and the flesh on my heels are screaming at me for stuffing them into petite high heels for the entire day, but i feel so good. my love affair with this foreign country is still going strong.

highlight of the weekend: the world cup game and me sleeping on the streets of seoul/getting woken up by the camera/pissed off, all on korean national television. i am embarrassed, but famous.

free gifts with everything

right now i am slowly recovering from my 20-minute trek up the insane beast of a hill from my classes/shopping to my dorm. i wish i was a korean-korean so i didn't have sweat glands or nerve endings, then i could be completely comfortable all the time and wear sweaters in the summer and tank tops in the winter. but instead, i am a gross and sticky american. occasionally, i feel so inferior to koreans in not only an amazing wearing-high-heels-on-slippery-concrete-sidewalks-uphill-in-pouring-rain way, but in pretty much every way possible, simply because they are awesome and beautiful. actually, everything is beautiful here- the mountains, the clothing, the food, the colors, the city streets, and even their highway ramps. i already can't wait to come back.

so, first day of class was today. nothing too interesting about that, except for the negative fact that my brain is not at all in school mode, but rather, fun field tripping mode! after classes, i went shopping for The Essentials, which i have already lived without for 4 or 5 days. everytime i go out in public, i feel as if i am playing games of charades with the korean salespeople, using body language and hand gestures to imitate obscure products that i don't know how to say in korean, such as: laundry detergent.

i have to remember to call my mum on her (50th) birthday today/tomorrow. i should write that down. okay, time for a psuedo-shower and dinner out. i am craving hot steamy pizza and crunchy orange cheetos. please?!

sane (pronounced saw-nay)

okay, i cannot tell a lie. i am obsessed with the new snow patrol CD (hello, driving music!) and will listen to them aalllllll day until scott forces me to switch to death cab. oh you know what happens when i fall in love with a song...

my sister just left me for camp in colorado. the next time i see her will be for our family vacation in two months. two months is definitely too long of a time without someone to laugh with you at the silliest (and i mean, DUMBEST) things in the world.

along with most other americans, i just finished searching for pictures of shiloh nouvel jolie-pitt. i am disappointed. after all, it's just a baby. for some reason i was expecting a full grown kid already, as i was getting ready to pick apart every one of his features. uh, i really do not understand babies.

okay now, go! (sleep for 30 more minutes >) shower > finish translating books for guatemala > buy new journal > get $1000 in traveler's checks

creative kidstuff

this is the adorable fourth grade class i got to work with the other day for Habitat. granted i was only there for a day, i think they are all as adorable as can be. first off, they love school to death. after every single question, they all desperately raise their hands by shooting their arms out of their shoulder sockets no matter if they know the answer or not. oh, such a metaphor for how adults should be more child-like, filled with such curiousity and boldness. i am going to marry eurim, 2nd up from the right, who is an absolute doll. and if i don't marry him, i'd settle for having a geeky cool asian kid just like him.

today was a major packing day. a majorly unsucessful packing day. before packing even began, there was cleaning out and organizing of old things to do, which ended up as a whole day trip down memory lane. then came the actual packing, which is where i become completely irrational and imagine up possible senarios of where i could end up and what i might need. a broken telephone? maps of the acropolis? three calculators? you never know.

tomorrow i'm taking scott (or he's taking me?) to see the BODY WORLDS exhibit at the minnesota science museum. i am incredibly intrigued/excited! and just a bit grossed out.

now more than ever, i feel like i have the world at my feet.

characters welcome

the thunder and lightning compel me to write something.

i just spent the last 20 minutes downstairs trying to outwit an imaginary intruder in our house, you know, by peering around corners, faking them out by switching on different lights, and moving as quietly as possible. now safe and sound under the covers in my own room, i come to the conclusion that i watch a hell of a lot of law & order, 24, things to do with murder, rape, torture and the like.

today i spent my afternoon at the flower shop buying "feel better" bouquets to do my best to make a few people feel better about themselves and the blindsiding shit that is handed out when they have already gone through hell and back. when i woke up this morning i was determined to make the world a better place, but after the two arrangement ladies behind the counter finished a second bouquet, i kind of gave up. i lost all brightness and realized that flowers are only fucking flowers. i do not know what to do. i am not able to give "you will be all better for good, i promise" flower bouquets and i hate to believe it.

i will now fall asleep to sounds of dripping rain
and soon learn how to post flikr pictures
and later get organized for korea, mentally and physically.