let it fall, let it fall, let it fall, please don't stop the rain

*don't be fooled by the title of this blog... it's just song lyrics. i would love it if korea would stop raining. i am getting sick of it. stupid typhoon.*


day two of desk warming is moving along just as slow as day number one... but at least i am getting things accomplished. 

since there are only 3 days until steph and i leave for thailand, naturally i have made a to-do list. and because i have ocd, i have broken it down into different categories to make sure i don't forget to do something. plus a packing list. lists, lists, lists... i'm a little ridiculous. 

i have called first tech and citibank, so when i use my cards, they won't freeze my accounts. first tech was just a precaution, hopefully i won't be using it while over there. citibank was a big one since my citibank korea card won't work in thailand. so i am going to transfer my money to my american citibank and use it from there. simple enough right... wrong. calling citibank to tell them i was going to thailand for vacation turned into a 40 minute conversation with a man i could barely understand. 

he could not comprehend the fact that i am living in south korea. (mind you, i called citibank before i left to tell them i was moving to south korea for a year and will be using my card. so it should have been on my account.) after repeating myself 3 times that i was going to be in thailand from the 12th to the 28th of august, he asked when i was coming back to the states. NO NO NO... i am going back to south korea! where i currently live! after being placed on hold 8 different times, explaining to him i live in korea, have for the last 5 months and will until next march, i finally got it worked out. by this time i just wanted off the phone. but i needed partner bank information for when we are in thailand... so i waited 10 minutes and called back, praying i didn't get the same man. thank goodness i didn't. i finally got a nice lady, who i could understand clearly, and she was able to help me no problem, and without putting me on hold. 

this morning i came in and decided i was going to print everything steph and i were going to need. flights, hostel confirmations, trek information, tiger temple information, and key thai phrases. printed and organized by location in a notebook. that was half my list to do. done and done! 

i'm thinking another nap is in order today. i napped for like an hour yesterday. it was wonderful. i love that i am getting paid for 4 full days to do whatever. nap, watch tv shows, prep for my trip, read. i would rather be at home, but if i have to be here i mine as well do something enjoyable. 

my sister is currently in new york visiting her friend. and what does she do... she goes and gets inked. yep that's right, my 18 year old sister, who; after i got my tattoo in college, swore she would never get one; as gone off and gotten her first tattoo. and she has informed me that we are getting one together when i get back from korea. oh my... look what i have created. a monster. 

so there are only so many things that you can do to fill the time for desk warming before you get bored. i still have 2 disks of west wing to finish, which i have been watching 1 a day to have something to do. i have also brought movies to watch. but i get bored with that. so what did i do yesterday, completely reorganized my desk area. cleaned it off, moved my cpu down to the floor. so now i have more desk space. i also learned (by accident) that i have the cord that controls the power to the entire opposite side of the office. 

so i woke up this morning, and the past two mornings, and my eye has been almost swollen shut. thankfully the swelling goes down usually after my shower, but i think i have figured out that i have a stye on the bottom lid of my left eye in the corner. it's rather annoying and i am hoping it goes away before i leave friday. i can't wear my contacts or eye make-up right now. 


apparently i have a quota for my injuries that i am to keep while in thailand. my minimum is 1, which is a given. this is me we are talking about... i will injure myself. thankfully i was told i can go over my quota. but now, i have been given the task of proving sophie wrong about it being impossible for me to get no more than 1 injury on my 16 day trip. you're on sophie! (i have a feeling i will lose, but it's worth a shot!)

 3 days till thailand!! i can't freaking wait.

drink at night and sleep all day, well I don't need you

today is sunday... that means there are 5 days left until stephanie and i leave for thailand on friday morning! it's going to be amazing. i can't wait. and because this is me we are talking about, i have already started making lists... yep that's an s on the end of that. multiple lists. because if i don't write everything down that i need to do, i know i am going to forget something. 

i am officially dog free. which means i am dog hair free. after mari came and picked up casanova, the first thing i did was vacuum. a lot. like two times over the whole area of my floors. after that i mopped my floors so they are all nice and shiny and clean. as much as i enjoyed watching the dog, i am glad to have my apartment back to myself. and to not have dog hair everywhere. my allergies are happy there won't be lots of dog hair around. that means i will be able to fully breathe again. 

though now that i am not watching the dog, i am currently feeding aj's rabbit mr. tonks. she is gone this week and won't be back till saturday. thankfully he won't be in my apartment. all i have to do is go and feed him once a day, play with him for a bit and give him water. till thursday and then i am out of here on friday. 

i ordered shorts online a while ago, had them shipped to my parents house and then my parents sent them to me in a package along with some other things. well apparently in between the time i ordered them and the time they got to me, i either lost weight or ordered the wrong size; because they definitely didn't fit. at all. but thankfully my friend debbie is amazing and can fix anything. so she was able to take them in!! so now i have two new pairs of shorts for thailand that fit me. 

since i started cleaning, i have sort of gone on a rampage. i cleaned my kitchen counters, did the dishes, used drain-o in my bathroom, did a load of laundry and started cleaning off my desk. i have come to the conclusion that i have accumulated so much stuff already. it's rather ridiculous. 


i am not ready for desk warming this week at all. 4 days with 8 hours of doing nothing... i still fully plan on sleeping when i get to work. watching west wing. reading my book. research for thailand. thailand prep. and probably lots of use of stumbleupon. so if anyone has skype and is willing to keep me entertained, i will be free all day to talk. :) 

5 days, 5 days, 5 days!!! in five days i will be at this beach enjoying my vacation! :)

a good day

i have been in korea for 5 months now... crazy. the day i get back from thailand, i will have been in korea for 6 months. that's half way through my 1 year contract. as of right now, things are still up in the air as to whether or not i am going to resign. i am leaning more towards not resigning and moving on to something else, but we will see. 

speaking of thailand, today i ordered my new memory card for my camera. i ordered an 8GB memory stick, because 2GB isn't going to be big enough for 16 days in thailand. so with 10GB total, that should be plenty for pictures and videos throughout the trip. 

i also learned last week that one of the girls i was supposed to go with to thailand can no longer go for personal family reasons. so now it's down to me and stephanie. i think we have everything figured out and there won't be any bumps in the road. so it's me and steph in thailand for 16 days. so far the plan is as follows: 

August 12th- leave for Bangkok. we are in Bangkok until the 15th. 
August 15th- night train from Bangkok to Chaing Mai. we arrive the morning of the 16th. check into our hostel and have the rest of the day to explore a bit. 
August 17th- leave for a 3 day/2 night trek trip. including staying in 2 local villages, a raft trip down a river, some hiking and an elephant ride. we get back the night of August 19th. on our own in Chaing Mai till the 22nd. That includes my 24th birthday! :)
August 22nd- Fly from Chaing Mai to Phuket. arrive in Phuket and island hop till we leave. 
August 28th- leave Thailand and head back to Korea. 

i have 3 days left on summer camp. i can't wait to be done. we are playing apples to apples tomorrow and getting to play frisbee outside (if the weather cooperates). thursday is all about food. i'm hoping to get to make rice krispee treats with them. then friday is movie day. we are going to be watching Cars.

next week i have 4 full days of desk warming. desk warming is exactly what it sounds like... i have to be at school for 4 days, but since it's summer vacation, i will be at my desk, doing basically whatever i want. so i fully plan on using the beds in the back of the office to sleep. i will be reading/finishing the new stephanie plum book. i will also be hopefully finishing the west wing as well. i am currently working on disk 5 of season 6. i have till the 11th to finish season 7. that means i will have watched the entire series of the west wing in 3.5 months. who would have thought i would have ever not only watched the west wing, but actually love it. i'm blaming mark... and jennie for letting me borrow the dvds. 

also for next week i need to finish doing research for thailand. and finalizing things with stephanie about everything. only 11 more days until thailand... it's going to be amazing. 


now back to more west wing before it's time to pack up and go home. 

team thailand!

to sweet beginnings and bitter endings

last week on friday i decided to make camp very low key and fun. i played twister with my kids during one of the 4 "class periods" we have. the last one of the day we made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches as well. it was an awesome day! 

the beginning of twister...

the kids kept calling him a frog because of his green shirt

this is minnie. she is absolutely adorable :)

these boys got sooooo into it

the two final champions, jake and leonardo

these girls are twins. their English names are Ann and Annie. :)

they were very excited for the sandwiches

these girls are adorable. :)

very excited! they asked for more. 

 needless to say... twister and pb&j were a hit. this week involves, line dancing, the macarena, frisbee, rice krispee treats and the movie Cars! should be a good last week of camp.

memory lane up in the headlights, it's got me reminiscing on them good times

my new mantra for the year. and i am happy to say i have already done half of them :-)

chances are....

so many countdowns to update... 

7 more days of summer camp to get through... almost halfway done. which is good. but it's actually gone really well so far. minus the weather. which is totally gonna ruin my plans for next week as far as activities and such. BOO! here's hoping it doesn't rain this friday, or really at all next week. it will just ruin too many things for me to replace. 

4 days of desk warming to get through. and i found out i will be in the office ALONE! what does this mean.... i will be blaring my music and not doing anything productive. at all. which will be grand. since i have to be here, i mine as well make the best of a crappy situation. 

10 days left with the wimp of a dog i am currently watching. seriously this dog is afraid of EVERYTHING!!! the rain, my large umbrella, my washing machine, my blow dryer, the vacuum, walking over sewer grates, walking around corners. basically everything. such a wimp.
 
15 DAYS TILL THAILAND!!! oh my goodness i cannot wait to go. it cannot come soon enough! it's going to be sooooo amazing! 

i have a group of 3rd-4th grade girls who i absolutely adore. they are so cute. :) 

they keep me pretty entertained through the 4 hours i am with them each day. now to just get through the next 7 days with no problems. i have lost one student already after the first day. his mother apparently overbooked him for classes he was taking, so English camp overlapped with something else, so he dropped out. fine by me... since he made all the boys just talk all the time. 

i now have 2 hours left sitting here at my desk with nothing to do. i'm prepped for tomorrow and friday already. maybe i will take a nap. there are two beds in the back half of the office i could use. will definitely be using them during my 4 days of desk warming. 

someone needs to save me from my boredom... please!

life is good today

this past weekend was the long awaited weekend of MUDFEST! dani and i both heard about it from audra and clayton upon our arrival to korea and we were told it's a must do while here. so finally after being here for almost 5 months, the weekend of mudfest arrived. 

a group of 11 of us made our way to the train station and took the KTX train down to Daecheon and then took a taxi to Boryeong, checked into our pension and headed to the festival. this was a weekend full of nothing but mud. head to toe covered in mud, for two days! 

playing card games on the train ride

we attempted to nap... wasn't happening.

taxi ride to our pension.

beginning of day 2!

jumping for the photographers

day 2 mudders!

so much mud everywhere...

such an awesome weekend in the mud

team thailand (minus 1)

after getting home sunday night, the first thing i did was take a shower... for 40 minutes. i washed my hair a total of 4 times before all the mud was gone and i felt clean. then took another shower in the morning. after getting to school on monday, a friend posted a picture someone found on Naver (Korean search engine... like google) we made the korean news! check it out!


the next big adventure will be THAILAND in 23 days!! but first i must make it through 2 weeks of summer camp and 4 days of deskwarming...