lots of babble: hehe...here i go!

yesterday at school, during one of my classes, i touched the edge of my nostril with my finger. while one of my students was reading aloud, another student, john, turns to his friend, jason and says (very quietly in korean), "joyce teacher, picked her nose. i saw! i can't believe she did that!" btw, this is my 4th grade class. by the time my student was finished reading, i couldn't help laughing. so i said, "john, you think i did this?!" and put my finger on the side of my nose like i was picking it. all the other kids were like, "john, how could u think that???" and john quickly said, "no, i thought u did this!" and imitated what i had originally done. but jason was like, "no no! he said u picked ur nose!" and the rest of the kids were like, "john, you're so bad. how could u think joyce teacher would do that? you're too much!" awww, the warm feeling i got from that. lol. :D

only in korea: in my last class of the day (from 645-725), the students in there are so hungry they usually eat during the 5 minute break before. last week i started smelling this fish smell. it was "oh ging uh" (dried octopus). i actually don't mind it since i like it myself, but i didn't like that they were eating it while i was teaching and my stomach was rumbling in the bronx. so i told them if they wanted to eat that, they'd have to give me some. hehe. so yesterday the boys were giving me chips and the girls were giving me "oh ging uh". only in korea would u eat dried octopus as a snack. haha.

today was my day off so i went grocery shopping with my aunt at the galleria dept store. it was so crowded for such a rainy day. it rained sooo hard this morning! anyways, after we finish with the groceries and about to leave, my aunt sees somebody she knows. later on i find out it's the younger sister of a famous korean designer, son kang sook (something like that...i forgot).



this style jacket is the "yoo heng" (fashion trend) right now and the designer's clothes are in kim hee sun's drama. so my aunt knows them well so she can get like a 30% discount off of a $500 jacket. can't believe those jackets are $500...

oh and another celeb connection: my cousin, jin ook, lives in japan and is friends with andre kim (the famous and weird designer)'s son. andre kim's son is nice, but very spoiled my cousin said. but my cousin helped him alot while they were both in japan. so andre kim came to japan to buy my cousin dinner. my cousin said a bunch of paparrazi showed up and looked for some celeb...only to see my cousin. he said he was freakin' embarrassed and uncomfortable. that happened a couple of years ago. while i was at my cousin ji yun's house (jin ook's older sister) last week, jin ook called from japan to wish us a happy "choo suk". unfortunately my uncle wasn't home so my cousin and uncle didn't get to talk. then right when i hung up with jin ook, my uncle comes in. so we tell him to call jin ook back. he tries, but no answer. about 5 minutes later, my uncle calls him again. he asked him why he didn't answer. jin ook says because andre kim called him! lol. asking him some question or something. how funny, huh? :)

my sister sent me a couple of videotapes so i wouldn't get so bored of korean tv. one was a tape she made of mostly mtv stuff and the other was a tape from last season's mavs vs. kings last regular season game. i watched just the intro (cuz i wanted to make sure she gave me the right game) and i got goosebumps just watching the intro. dang, what am i gonna do during the upcoming season? oh and grace met nash the other day. he was wearing a cap that said, "single". i guess julie's efforts to become best friends with his trainer-gf was wasted. haha.

wore my contacts for a few hours today. MUCH more easier to put in and take out. the doc says i can't wear soft lenses. i guess i got jacked up eyes. o_O

and i'm officially leaving for japan on oct 7th! can't wait!!

i'm going to a Church this Sunday. :)

okie, time to watch some more tv. btw, i'll be moving to my cousin's house (the one i'm more comfortable with) this saturday! whoo hoo! so excited. unfortunately, her computer doesn't work that well so not sure how i am gonna upload my pics there. =( but i'll try.

Squirted 7:37 AM by E-J Yi

noises...: i think i'm gonna go crazy if i don't leave here soon...but first...



"sang doo yah, hak gyo gah jah" (sang doo, let's go to school!) is a new drama that debuted this past monday. it's so hilarious. one of my favorite actresses, gong hyo jin, is the lead and she cracks me up! :D this drama kinda reminds me of GTO (great teacher onizuka?). so funny.

ok about the noises. i wake up everyday here b/c of the security guard ahjuhshi (older man) sweeping the steps. trust me, it's LOUD. then lil kids and their moms are talking so loud when they go to school. u can hear the neighbors so well here. then the bugs start. then it's my cousin's family. my uncle turns on classical music in the morning. i guess this is okay, but for me, i can't sleep. but my cousin, man, she doesn't close doors softly.

btw, i got mad at her yesterday, but i didn't show it. she told me, "i'm going to come home around 5:30 or 6 so let's eat dinner together." i hesitated b/c she's always late for anything (u know how music & art students are), but i agreed. 5:30, no unnie. 6, no unnie. 6:30, no unnie. 7, no unnie. so i'm getting pretty hungry around now so i called her around 7:15. she tells me, "oh, i'll be home in about 30 minutes." i couldn't wait any longer. i told her i was gonna eat the uno's pizza leftovers in the fridge. it was nasty. she came home around 9:15, but i'm sure she took her time after i told her i called. i just wished she had called. atleast.

my aunt's coming home today. i get a suitcase full of goodies from my family! (^.^)v

Squirted 7:47 PM by E-J Yi

another nasty taste in my mouth: what's up with today?

i went to the eye doc. last time i went i noticed that alot of patients got to sit down with their eye closed infront of this machine that has emits a red light. i wasn't sure if that was like slightly radioactive or something, but i didn't do it last time. this time i did. it was like this warm light going into my eyes. i wonder if there's any ill-effects from it. anyways, seems that i have something wrong with my eyes. not a major problem, but the doc prescribed me some medicine. before i left to go to the doc, my eyes were hurting like crazy. seems there was a bunch of dust he said. that dust caused me so much more pain than my eye surgery. no joke. i need lasik. well, after going to the doc, i feel a lil better now about wearing my contacts, but not a whole bunch. the nasty taste came from some drops he put in my eye. ugh. so nasty.

btw, i uploaded MORE pics. why? cuz i was bored. check out the "sept 2003" and "where i live" albums. there's new pics there. =)

in korea right now, they're trying to raise money for the areas hit hard by the typhoon "mem mi". but it seems like it's so little. only about $1.5 mil so far. =(

dang i'm hungry. talk to u folks later. (^.^)v

Squirted 3:16 AM by E-J Yi

ugh...milk!: "doo yoo" (soy milk) is all the rage here. but not for me...

i had a bottle of regular milk in the fridge. i looked at the date. 9.5.03. wasn't sure if that was the expiration date or born-on(?) date. opened it. smelled it. smelled kinda bad. poured some on the counter. no running milk. (if the milk doesn't stay in a puddle, then it's gone bad.) still not sure. poured some in a cup. took a sip and OMG!!! TASTED LIKE CRAP!! WORST TASTE EVER!! i thought i was gonna throw up. freakin' brushed my teeth again afterwards. ugh.

today i'm going to the eye doctor so he can check up on my contacts. yesterday i put them in. my left eye actually went in perfectly, but i felt like needles were in my eye. then my right eye would not focus at all. it was horrible. i dunno how much i can take of this. it's incredibly painful. i'm going to try for another 2 weeks. if it still hurts, then contacts are not for me. even tho it's $200 out the door, i still wanted to try it.

my uncle wanted me to try the pork that he made. ugh. i don't like cooking. made it last night. burned so many onions. oops. was okay actually, but didn't eat much. oh and after all that eating i did at my other cousin's house, i actually lost a pound! can u believe that? :)

one thing that i still cannot get used to about korea: the smell of #2 and/or trash. b/c korea's a small country, i'm supposed to understand. but when i'm just walking, sometimes the smell just HITS u like a brick wall. i wonder if korean natives can smell it. it's absolutely gross. i've gagged a couple of times. i breathe through my mouth at places i know will smell. ugh.

yesterday before i went to school, i went to the bus stop when i noticed all these guys putting up cameras and lights. they had been filming a scene near my aunt's house. (b/c she lives in a rich area, lots of scenes are shot there.) anyways, i stood there watching (even tho they'd probably look at me like i was weird) and tried to look for the actors and/or actresses that had been filming. i spotted the 2 actresses, but had no idea who they were. one was an ahjummah (older woman) and the other had a paperboy hat and sunglasses on so i didn't know who they were. i'll look on tv later to see who that might be but i'm guessing they're nobodies or i'd be regretful that i didn't go up to them. (not sure i would these days actually.)

aite. time to put those danged contacts in! >.<

Squirted 8:48 PM by E-J Yi

@#$#%: i woke up with a frickin' crick in my neck. it hurts so bad!

i know i feel much more comfortable over at ji yun unnie's house. >.< no matter how much i massage my neck, it hurts like crazy. aish.

ok anyways, i forgot to mention something important.

on friday for lunch, my uncle and aunt (my dad's youngest sister) picked me & ji yun unnie up and took us to a shabu shabu restaurant. shabu shabu is thin meat that is cooked in a pot of boiling sauce and then dipped in like a soy sauce. omg, it was SOOOOOOOOO good!! i ate so much. unfortunately, i didn't bring my camera b/c it was raining so much and i TOTALLY regret it. why? 1) b/c the table setting was so awesome. everybody gets their own pot (OF SOUP, oK!), side dishes, and meat~! it's arranged so pretty. then you can cook ur meat w/o worrying about somebody else wanting to cook their stuff. dang, it was "melt-in-your-mouth" delicious. i was forced to eat lots of vegetables. ugh. mushrooms. kkeh neep (leaves). but i ate a lot of meat. hehe. and 2) b/c a famous person was there! no, not a celeb, but a sports athlete. her name is joo min jin. she won a gold medal at the winter olympics!! now she's gonna be a pro golfer! my aunt is close friends with her family so they treated us really well. even got ice cream afterwards! hehe. oh and that girl's hamstrings were NO JOKE! dang, it was like she stuffed ham up there. but her calves were skinny. hmmm...

hey i FINALLY uploaded my pics! so check out the "fotos_2" album, ok? :) unfortunately, i didn't realize how blurry the close-up pics would be. sorry. the pics are kinda big, but u can see alot of details. i really like my camera! i will take more pics~

**warning! graphic material ahead!**

the other day i ate galbi jjim (soft galbi basically) for dinner. unfortunately i couldn't take off the fat so i was forced to eat it. later on that night my stomach hurt SOOO freakin' bad. so i went to do my business. i was on the pot for a while. ouch. this is gross, but i looked after i finished. there was the meat fat floating around! EWW!! i guess ur body really doesn't break down fat. ugh.

**graphic material finished!**

ok time to take a shower, eat lunch (spaghetti, hopefully!), and off to school. hope the kids don't make my crick worse.

Squirted 9:04 PM by E-J Yi

"______ killer": man, oh man, what a week! :)

i spent the whole week at my cousin ji yun's house. i had a BLAST!! :D

i went on wednesday and i just basically just hung out watching tv. me & my cousin stayed up until 4am just talking. :) the next day we both woke up late. this wasn't a good thing for me cuz i had told my uncle that i'd go with him to the sahn soh which is the cemetary. my grandfather's grave. but it was good that i didn't go actually b/c that meant my aunt didn't have to go. (she was gonna go if i went.) so she got to rest. we spent the rest of the day eating and watching tv. again. hehe. it was so great.

friday was spent hanging out with my cousin and aunt again. it was raining a bit b/c of the typhoon "meem mi". it hit the countryside really hard and there was like mass flooding. i guess i can say that we were lucky that didn't get hit hard, but it's really sad to see the video footage of what happened down south. buildings, houses, boats had all flipped over so it was sad. that night my cousin was stressed out from something at her school and she felt like eating. so me & her went to the nearby convenience store and bought some chips, soft drinks, and oh ging euh which is dried octopus. yum! so me, my cousin, and my aunt just ate and talked. hehe. i pigged out, huh? :)

saturday my cousin felt so cooped up from staying at home (me too) and wanted to exercise off the food we ate last night so we went walking in the park along the Kang river. we walked for TWO hours. ouch. but i had a great time just talking and stuff as we walked. i should have taken my camera, but it looked like it was gonna rain so i didn't. =( came home, ate dinner and me & my cousin watched tv until 3am. hehe.

today i woke up relatively early, 1030am, and to my surprise, my cousin asks, "joyce, do you wanna eat mcdonald's for lunch?" DO I?!?! :D my aunt wanted to eat mcd's too so me & my cousin went to mcdonald's drive-thru. they had mcRib there so i wanted to get that. but then i saw a HELLO KITTY MCDONALD'S toy!! so i changed my mind. but i guess my cousin thought i was gonna eat both so she got the mcRib meal (actually called "set"), the happy meal, and 2 shrimp burgers. they have shrimp and bulgogi burgers at mcd's. cool, huh? my cousin then tells me that their family used to eat mcd's for lunch every sunday. OMG. it's like i was born to be in this family, huh? hehe. so we happily ate mcd's. i didn't eat the happy meal so no, i didn't pig out THAT much.

things that made me laugh (but maybe not to you guys) while i was there:

*my cousin imitating beavis & butthead. she saw them on mtv (she's over 30) and thought, "what the heck are those filthy-looking characters? why are there heads so big? and why do they keep saying 'uh huh huh.'"
*my aunt knowing the spelling of F-A-R-T.
*the stories my uncle told about my mom & her sister fighting while growing up
*me & my cousin talking about the celebs we see on tv. "ew, look at her nose. man, he's so cute. ew, he grosses me out!"

"____ killer", you ask? in korea, if you really like some kind of food, for example, i like screw bars, somebody would call me a "screw bar killer". so far i've been called a "screw bar killer", "tonkatsu (fried pork cutlet) killer", and "bread killer". :D i'm so proud. haha.

now i'm back at home at my other aunt's. nobody's home right now. i'm gonna watch the ending of "bodyguard" and the movie "charlie's angels". it's in korean, but i still enjoy it. :)

i took some pics, but i haven't installed the software so i can upload. once my cousin gets home, i'll put the software in, and upload as soon as i can.

i will probably be moving to my uncle's at the end of the month or maybe even sooner. we already talked about me living there and stuff so i'm really happy. :)

tomorrow's back to school. *sigh* not many more vacations from now on.

hope everybody's doing well! (^.^)v

Squirted 6:09 AM by E-J Yi