So, it's been... a month? ish? since I wrote. It's been a good month overall! For basically the entire month of May I was being plagued by a nasty cough which in the end turned out to be bronchitis, but even that had some cool plus sides to it-- the main one being that I was able to have a SLEEPOVER at my boss' house. oh yes. This sleepover also involved sleeping in one of my students' rooms... now there's a weird dynamic in class. ("Teachah, you know the ______ you saw at my house? Teachah, you know the fish I have in my room?" etc. insert confused looks from other students) It was a good experience over all, though. It let me see a more human side to the sometimes not-so-wonderful workplace personalities of Mr. Kim and his wife Mrs. Park.
Side note: I am very confused about the last name Park. The Korean reading of it has no R! Where did it come from?! Can someone please explain romanization of languages in different characters to me? :)
Since then, though Gwangju has been a fun place :) There's been a lot of fun nights dancing with the girls, movie-watching on the roof with Bess, soccer-watching with friends and coworkers, and making plans for the next few months!
A few weeks ago we took a day trip to a beach about an hour northwest of Gwangju on the Yellow Sea. As always, getting outside of the city involves hilarity when we try and navigate in a country where we are illiterate, but we managed to pull it off with help from some random foreigners and friendly workers at one of the bus stations we ended up at. :) Kim-bap, clear skies, shadow-dwelling Koreans, and responsible sun-screen application (minus the tops of my feet) made this a pretty good beach day. I'm still looking for some better water to reeeeeally swim in, but there's the whole summer ahead of me!
Oh! A few big milestones!
1) I have officially stayed out till the light is up.... TWICE! One was completely inadvertent-- we got sucked into the wondrous black hole of norae-bongs (karaoke rooms!), and the second time was 100% intentional. The USA vs. England game aired at 3:30am here... that was a doozy. Not the best game, but a really fun atmosphere with all the foreigners and all the excitement.
2) This is officially the longest I've ever been away from home/my family (as of June 18). Whoah! No crippling moments of homesickness yet, so I'm feeling pretty good about it. Although do NOT get me wrong... I miss my family a ton! But I like to think that their support and the past few years of living away from home are doing a good job of keeping me positive and in charge of the way I view the time away from them. :)
3) While I was sick, I went for TWO FULL WEEKS without coffee! I was cured of my headache-inducing addiction. :) However, I have returned to regular consumption, but hopefully this time it won't get a vice-like grip on me!
4) I have also decided: I'm going back to grad school! Now begins all the lovely processes of GRE-taking, applying, etc. But I'm 100% confident that it's what I'm supposed to be doing next, and I can't wait to get started. So far, I'm looking at American and NYU, both for a MA in International Education with a focus on International Education Exchange. Woohoo!
5) I got my first massage! IT WAS TERRIBLE. Asian massage therapists are brutal, invasive, and angry women. My back was demolished by their hands of death, and I was sore and bruised for about 5 days. Danielle, Megan and I went one afternoon, and it instantly became one of those hilarious and painful stories we'll tell for ages. Ridiculous. Never again!
At the risk of only being capable of writing in list form, I think I'll stop here. With two more list-form world cup-loving messages:
1. USA! USA! USA! USA!
2. Korea Fighting! Provided you don't have to fight the USA! In which case, see #1.
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