Home of the Free...and Frumpy

Heyyyyy Oohhhhh.

Oh my! It has been SO long! Right? How are you friends? Me, I'm doing just dandy. It has been QUITE the interesting last few weeks. I mean, what was even going on last time I posted? Was Lincoln still in office? I don't even know. Sorry for the huge break. I know all of you were heartbroken.

Whoa. I just checked the last post and I skipped over all of May and June! Goodness! Now it's July and it's almost my GOLDEN BIRTHDAY!!! WOOOOO. That means I will be 28 ON the 28th! I am so old! I kind of can't believe this is really happening! I am also a little nervous that it's not going to be epic and awesome. It is over our summer vacation and almost everyone I know here will be out of town...or having babies. I will have to round together a rag tag group to make it awesome. Totally possible, don't worry.

Anyway. So much has happened! I'll rewind and hit the highlights. And then I'll try to start posting more often...I'm sure people need to know things.

I broke up with my boyfriend! I'm the one that did it and I'm ok with it now, but man oh man it was quite the dramatic experience. Seriously, more drama in a week than I think I've ever had. It was a little ridiculous and I was all, "is this real life?" And it was and it sucked. But, that's over now and I'm moving right along. I've never been the one breaking up with someone, I've always been broken up with, so it was a new experience. I didn't really like it, so I'm going to try and avoid it for the rest of my life. My plan is to just do whatever I want and not be called anyone's girlfriend until I think I'm with the person I'm going to marry. Good plan, right? I thought so.

Anyway, I also went home! Dang, I really can't believe it's been that long! A lot happened at home and it was all fascinating, but I'm going to just gloss over it since it really deserves it's own post (but probably won't get one). Main thing, my sister got married. Yay, good for her. Her new husband is very nice and has lots of fun, interesting family and friends. I guess they're my family too now? I actually don't really know how that works. The wedding was very pretty, she looked amazing and I looked pretty awesome as well. I still think my hair looked very 50s mom-ish (I was told repeatedly it didn't), but my make-up was amazing. Basically I was smoking hot. Quite pasty and fat, but my face was looking good.

I also went to my 10 year high school reunion while I was home. It happened to be at the same time, so I figured why not? It wasn't bad, but it was pretty boring and uneventful as well. Sadly, not very many people I was interested in seeing were actually there. I had a fine time in high school and didn't really have any grudges to avenge, but it would have been more fun to see people I was better friends with. I did go with my good group of girlfriends and were (obviously) the life of the party. Seriously, no one else was dancing. No one else as drunk as us, but I hardly doubt the two correlate at all.

My two best college friends came to visit me while I was home, from Florida and Texas and that was an awesome time too. Probably my favorite time. Other than all the time I spent at the beach. There are not even words to express how much I love the beach and how I wish I could be at it all day every day. Sadly, it rained quite a bit while I was home so I didn't get to spend as much time as I wanted there, but I did get a pretty good tan. Which was mentioned literally every time I saw someone for the first time when I got back to Korea. I guess it was kind of a big difference from when I left, but I thought it was pretty funny that it got mentioned all the time. Also, Koreans are more into having very white skin, so I don't think most people were impressed...more shocked I was happy being so dark. And I was! Quite proud of my tan...and very sad now it's fading.

I also ate a ton of good food while in the States. But, because I had some stomach issues while I was there (stress and different water, I think), I didn't eat as much as I wanted. Which, was probably for the best, in the end. I think I would have gained a lot more weight if I could have eaten 3 STP Dippers a day, like I wanted. I am sad that I didn't bring back a proper amount of food (mainly candy) with me, so feel free to send some my way...I have a list. I also didn't buy as many clothes as I wanted either. I got kind of conservative with my money, which I realize now was a stupid decision. However, I did invest in some good quality under garments for the first time in my life and it has made a HUGE difference. So yay for that.

So that was America. Lots of good food, good friends, good driving, amazing beach time, just an overall good time. It was actually quite strange to be home. People are so different! Mainly, in the way they dress. Most of the men here are SO stylish and put together. At home,everyone seems so frumpy because they wear ill fitting clothing. Don't get me wrong, I am pretty frumpy myself, but I like to look at men that aren't. But for some positives, the grocery stores are amazingly huge with so much selection, I almost cried when I for the first time. I also went to Target like, 7 times (in the first week) and spent so much money. I had to put myself on Target restriction. I realize now that was stupid, but at least now I'll maybe have some money saved for a kick ass winter vacation. So, yeah, America was great. But, I was happy to come back to Korea. It was nice to be welcomed back by all my babies and my lovely co-workers. I think that's a good sign...to be happy to go back to work. I was so excited to see my class! I feel so lucky to have a job that I really love and enjoy and am looking forward to the rest of the year!

On that same vein (skipping ahead 3 weeks), we had Parent/Teacher conferences on Friday and it just further solidified my satisfaction with this job. I wasn't really looking forward to them because it means sitting in a chair all day, mainly just listening to my co-teacher and the mom speak Korean while I pretend to look interested. Sometimes the moms can speak English and we chat and my co-teacher translates some as well. But mainly I just sit. BUT, point is, the moms were just so nice and grateful, and it's just another reason I love the job. First off, a lot of them bring us presents, which is AWESOME. All food, since we are not "allowed" to accept real presents, but I love food, so no complaints here. A group of moms brought us peaches, which are crazy expensive in Korea. Also, they told me they brought fruit instead of cake because the students told them I was on a diet. Which I find hilarious....they thought this because I usually eat an apple at lunch and the kids see it. I also eat pizza, fried chicken and a host of other unhealthy dishes, but that one piece of fruit indicates a healthy diet. I love it! They also had lots of good things to say about how much their kids love coming to PSA because they love me and my co-teacher, and how they are all very impressed with how much their kids are learning. I love (and need!) positive feedback, so this is all just fantastic for me. Love it. Then I celebrated with noreabang (Korean karaoke) and we sang all the musical songs they had in the book...'Do You Hear the People Sing,' 'Under the Sea,' 'Do Re Mi,' all the things Korean people want to hear while they're drunk.

Anyway, nothing else exciting going on. Well, that's not all true...but they are not family friendly things. So, in other news, it has been raining like no one's business here, so I've been spending a lot of time indoors. I'm not complaining though because if it's not raining, it's hot as mess.

My vacation starts this week, so I'll be going to Busan (a big beach city) for a few days and then will be back to celebrate my BIG SPECIAL GOLDEN CHAMPAGNE BIRTHDAY!!! It's going to be awesome!

Dream big people!