what a bittersweet day

as the title reads..

first the sweet news.. i got news that i will be able to come home for almost the entire month of august!! i will be heading to a different school when i come back, but i welcome the change.. i'm excited to see everyone, to breathe clean air, to eat home cooked food, and to lay on the couch watching daytime tv.. time will be split accordingly between oshawa/tdot, kincardine and london..
so yay...

now the bitter news which leaves me sad and crippled.. my best guyfriend, and best girlfriend left korea today.. i had to say goodbye to both within the same hour.. it makes me sad because they are like my security blanket here.. they will eventually be coming back, but it feels like the end of an era.. so i have spent the last couple of hours crying.. i'm la-hame..

oh and i'm also strongly considering buying a puppy.. it's irrational, and not practical but i want unconditional love..

another wednesday

well it's wednesday here again.. 2 hours and 25 minutes left in my shift..
i'm sad because today is gregs going away party.. he actually doesn't leave until next monday, but my heart is still crying because i know this is the last time we'll go out together.. he's coming back, in about 6 months, but of course things will be very different.. he's getting married, we'll be at different schools, etc etc.. right now he's my b.g.f.i.k. (best guy friend in korea).. i don't know why i feel the need to categorize all of my friends.. perhaps it's because socially here i'm back in highschool.. anyways, it should be a fun night all the same..

i'm currently at my 10 month mark.. that means that i have 2 months left. i'm still not completely sure what i'm doing at the end of those 2 months yet.. i will let you know..

ummmmm what else? oh.. last weekend i saw that davinci code.. i thought it sucked.. but was still amusing, or more amusing watching tristan laugh her ass off at the nun being knocked out (she really is a sweet girl).. i also finally watched one of the dvds i bought in thailand, capote.. it was amazing..
saturday i went out to some foreigner bars and then on sunday went to this mexican style party for a bit... how i miss guacamole!!! afterwards i met my friend eunkyu downtown to go out for more food and to do some shopping.. i, for once, bought nothing..

ok, i'm realizing that this entry is uber boring, i should perhaps include a disclaimer at the top but i don't care. you're just avoiding work/class to read this anyways. you'd probably read just about anything i write. maybe i should take this opportunity to rant about how xena warrior princess IS an entertaining good quality show where lucy lawless truly shines (i don't care what you say russ!!) .. or how i feel that boughten should be considered a grammatically correct word.. it just feels right doesn't it? ah, sir, i see you've played knifey spoon before!

i'm off.. miss and love you tons,
jen

oh, and i wish that blogger had an "is currently listening/reading option" .. so i'm adding my own..

i am currently listening to "The Best of Janis Joplin" a woman after my heart..
and am reading... actually i don't remember the name of the book offhand, but it's a fantasy book sent to me by scott crowther esq.

blimey!

so i have a decision to make. i was talking to the chick who does the hiring for my school and she said that if i don't resign right away, as in stay where i am with no break, there may not be another contract available until.. well who knows.. it could be november, could even be later.. that means that if i do come home for the break that i wanted (i really only wanted a few weeks or a month) i could end up at home with nothing to do for 3 or more months. 3 or more months without pay. though i could probably swing that if i lower my osap payments now, seriously what am i going to do for 3 months? i can't work if i want to keep my non-residency status. august would be ok because it's the summer, and the best time to be in kincardine but once everyone goes back to school/work, i'm left bored. i suppose i could rack up some more volunteer hours, but when i'm not working i always feel guilty. 3 months of doing nothing? i don't think i have it in me. but i also know that psychologically and emotionally i am going to need some kind of break and a week is not going to cut it. there are too many of you i want to see, and i want to really see you.. not just say hi, hug, kiss and jump right back on a plane.

what to do, what to do?

so last night i saw the davinci code. i say meh to it. although my expectations were low so i guess in that respect it made them. the albino was good looking though.. go figure. after seeing the movie i went and met up with some people for some late night galbi. since i don't eat meat, i watched them eat meat until 3 am. still a good time though.

i have no idea of what is going on, but there is some man on a loudspeaker right now outside my apartment. he's different from the blue truck guys, and much much louder. it's like a one man parade out there. i hate him. so it's 11 am (which is early for me on a weekday, let alone weekend) and i'm up. i suppose i should start my day anyways.

talk to you soon.. help a sista out with some advice please.
xxoo

i am a frickin dork (but am not alone)

so a few weeks ago, i went to suseong lake with my friend kyung-soon.. we have a weekly date where we hang out, shoot the shit, talk about our hopes, wishes, dreams.. it works well because her english is very good, and her attitude is rather westernized.. it's also convenient because she lives right across the street so i can go to her place in my pjs.. so as i said, one day we made the walk to the lake, grabbed some food and hung out.. we were very korean that day in that we took about a million pictures of eachother.. so i'm posting the pics.. call me vain if you wish.. you all wanted an accurate representation of what my life is like here.. and this is it.. you can kick me when i get home (which is in about 2 months!! whoo!)

This is soon. She is pretty much the most beautiful person I've met in Korea, both inside and out. We love her.

yeah...









This is in soons apartment. She is getting married soon, and she wanted to learn how to cook, and so she's been practicing with me. My role is just to eat and say it's delicious. Here we're eating a mushroom bibimbap. It's early for me in these pics, which is why I look so frickin tired.

So sometimes you need to embrace your inner dorkiness. It's just easier for some.

another strange dream

so i started off travelling with mom.. i believe we were in thailand.. (the order of the events in this dream are a little confusing to me) .. i remember thinking i want to go for a walk on the beach to 'say goodbye' to the country.. i remember not being able to find my bathing suit, and when i did find it, it was soaking wet, and i couldn't wring all the water out of it.. something happened where i got hurt.. i managed to stab myself in the chest.. all of a sudden, i was at my school, and marla was there and she was fixing me up.. but to fix me up, she had to puncture my neck and put a tube there in order for me to breathe.. i remember it didn't hurt but just felt really strangeand i remember the feeling of actually breathing through my neck.. then she operated on my chest.. after that, i said i had to go because i had to buy my gramps a christmas present.. so (and i can't remember what guy did this but) this guy drove me to a sports store, because i wanted to get him golf balls.. i remember walking around the store trying to find good ones that weren't expensive.. the only ones that were cheap came in these big boxes.. but i wanted to buy smaller boxes that had more variety.. i remember it working out to 190 extra dollars to buy them the way i wanted.. all of a sudden, this guy nick (who i met a long time ago in korea, but who has since moved to spain) came up to me and gave me a big hug and began to help me barter with the salesman who just seemed confused by the fact that i didn't want to spend all that extra money.. someone else from my work walked into the store and nick ran to them to give them a hug and to tell them all about spain..

anyone want to dive into my psyche a bit and let me know what they think about that?

back in reality, last night after work marla and i spend some time having some good pg fun to celebrate our newfound singledom. we went to the local arcade which was fun until these very drunk guys came to sit beside me and challenged me to play tetris. shockingly my hand eye coordination was better. they then followed me, and then us (when marla finally got the hint to take me away) around the arcade for awhile, trying to show off their (lacking) gaming skills. then we went to a game room where i destroyed marla in jenga 5 times. if there was a jenga olympic team, i would so be recruited.

oi to the world

so the weekend was ok.. i've been fighting off yet another cold.. i again blame the children, although this time the yellow dust may be to blame.. apparantly korea gets a good handful of this yellow dust from china each year.. they actually have yellow dust, air quality warnings.. i have not seen any yellow dust, maybe i'm oblivious, all the same i'm getting sick.. so friday night i went to watch marla sing for a bit.. that was aight.. saturday i hung out downtown, did some shopping.. i've been looking for some new sneakers.. i may be ready to stray from my shelltoes, but i can't find this amazing shoe store to save my life.. downtown is basically a labrynth.. and with my sense of direction it's basically a lost cause.. so i got indian food, a couple of tshirts and went to careys to watch a movie, where i fell asleep at around 10 pm.. i woke up when the movie finished to go home and sleep some more.. today i woke up to meet a friend downtown again for some food.. we caught up, it was nice.. after that i was walking around alone, and stumbled across a rock/ punk (but i say more rock) festival.. it was awesome.. i was the only foreigner for as far as i could see.. i got to listen to some tunes which were alright.. alright until this band tried to sing sk8er boi (seriously) and the only redeeming feature was that they got ALL the words wrong.. so i went and bought some cds (i'm always looking for good korean music).. it may be able to hold me over until i can get to call the office in august..

you can tell that it's pretty much summer here because downtown is CRAZY busy.. you can barely put one foot infront of the other.. and they're giving out free samples like it's going out of style.. there were tons of people waiting in line for free soju (seriously, it's 80cents a bottle, go to the store) and free milk (this i don't really understand)..

so my weekend is over and i didn't really do much, but i got some much needed rest.. tomorrow it's back to the same old, but i'll hopefully fit in a hike somewhere..

i'm off to clean my apartment now..

peace

ps- to mom : thanks for bestowing the gift of life unto me.. you rock (for other reasons too)

i'm sneezing while i'm typing this

so i had a dream last night that i was a student.. i was sitting in a classroom with some strangers and some people that i know from korea... the teacher was asking everyone around the room to read from the textbook.. everyone did fine and when it was my turn i couldn't read.. the letters were either too small, the room too dark, or they were just words that i had never heard of before.. i remember even changing seats to see if that would help, and still i couldn't do it.. i felt embarassed and frustrated..

this is what i found online:

To dream that you are reading, signifies that you need to obtain more information or knowledge before making a decision. You should review your thoughts, think things through and consider other options.

To dream that you or someone is reading incoherently, signifies worries and disappointments.

worries and disappointments eh.. things that make you go hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

i'm not an addict...

ok so yes i am... my laptop broke on friday... and since i don't have my computer doctor (kocela) i had to take it in... i was without it for 3 days and i was not a happy camper.. when i went to pick it up the first time it was in many pieces.. it was like watching someone operate on your baby... or so i'm going to assume.. it was rough but i got it back..

anyways, we went to seoul on saturday.. stayed at the nice hotel.. when we arrived at seoul station we walked outside to see a man, sitting in front of a line of cars, in the rain.. if i had my camera i would have taken a picture.. i have no idea why this guy was sitting there, and noone seemed upset that he was there.. this is very strange being as people LOVE to use their horns here.. after about 5 minutes of us being there.. he stood up, walked away and the line of cars started moving.. bizarre..

awwww frick

so i just got off the phone with meg.. and frickin heck i miss her.. she said that she ran into my papa on the street in kincardine and he was trying to convince her to convince me to come home for more than a week.. the idea is very tempting.. i've never been that good at committing to anything for a VERY long time, so perhaps a break is what i need before i try to tackle another year here..

anyways all is well, i'm just on my way out to lunch with greg.. i'm trying to convince people that since we're NOT going to japan this weekend we should at least head up to seoul for a night.. it seems like every girl i know has been going through some kind of drama as of late and i think it would be a swell idea to get the heck out of the city for awhile to forget our troubles.. even if i end up doing the exact same things i do here on the weekends (eat, dance, eat, sleep) at least it will have the shine of something slightly different.. ok, so not really, but i'm grasping for change here and will take what i can get...

mmmk ay..

much love (i'm so street it hurts)