hello!: what a boring title, i know.

something that made me laugh the other day...

i was having dinner with one of the korean teachers (not going to mention her name) and somehow we got on the topic of guys with hairy chests. she said she didn't like hairy chests and i agreed. then she said, "he has to remove his hair from his chest." i thought that a lil funny, but then she added, "if he refuses to do that, then i'm not going to shave my armpits until he does. we're both going to suffer together!" LOL! hehe...

last night after i got off work from school, i was walking towards the bus stop when i met tommy at the signal light. we take the same bus so we were talking and walking when i turned around and saw one of our korean teachers behind us walking by. this is the same teacher who said that "he was her style". oops. well, we got on the bus and all of a sudden, it started to rain really hard. there was NO advanced warning from the stupid weatherwomen that it was going to rain. and i didn't have an umbrella, of course. so i was like, "dang, i gotta walk like 10 minutes in the rain. ugh!" then tommy pulls out a brand-new umbrella from his backpack and tells me to take it. i told him it was ok, but he said he only had to walk like a minute from his stop (he gets off the bus after me). i almost started laughing cuz i thought of how my cousin would react (she'd love it). as i was walking home it was still raining, but then it stopped about 100 yards infront of my cousin's villa. so much for the rain. sheesh. and no, don't get any funny ideas. we're not a match.

by the way, if you are wanting to come to korea to teach, PLEASE let ME know. i'm telling u right now that where i work is the most reliable place to work. they pay you ALWAYS on time (or earlier) which is rare in korea. the pay is pretty good and you don't have high living-costs so you're able to save money. i really do think that some of ya'll without a job and nothing to do would enjoy doing this for a year or so. and i would be here to help u out. so think about it. all u need is a college degree and ME! :D

another thing that made me laugh...(but not sure if it will make U laugh)

last night we (my cousin's family and i) were watching the news when there was a report on how a train tunnel had been wrongly built. nobody bothered to think about what would happen if the train had caught on fire in the tunnel. there were no holes in the tunnel except for the entrance and exit so everybody on the train would suffocate and die. so now they have to spend millions to rebuild it. at first, i didn't understand what was going on, but my cousin was clapping her hands and yelling, "YUK SHE HAN GOOK! YAY!!! YAY!!! DAE HAN MIN GOOK MAHN SEH!! DAE HAN MIN GOOK! YAY!!!" basically she was yelling, "yeah, that's korea for you! go korea!" i didn't realize she was being sarcastic. hehe.

ahh, tomorrow's my birthday! :D i'm sad that i won't be able to spend it with u guys. =*( i'm going to have either lunch or dinner with my cousin's family b/c my uncle has the SAME bday as me! what a coincidence, huh? and monday, i'm having lunch with my aunt. thanks for the early bday card, young! :)

have a good weekend! (^.^)v

Squirted 8:49 PM by E-J Yi

you never know...: things have been surprising me these days...

well, for ONE...i'm surprised i haven't got sick yet. our school is either too cold or too hot. it's about the low 60s right now in korea, but we have to turn on the air conditioner sometimes b/c of the amount of kids stankin' up the place. and i'm not that tired as i thought i would be. this week has been my first full week of teaching and so far it's been good. sometimes i forget that i'm actually 1/2 way around the world from everybody. weird.

TWO...i didn't notice there was some friction btwn a couple of the teachers. i thought they got along fine, but last night one of them told me that she was purposely avoiding the other teacher b/c their personalities just clash and she doesn't want a fight to break out. i was totally taken back by this.

THREE...there are 2 bratty korean kids i teach, but they're not as bratty to me as they are to the korean teacher. once, she was explaining the concept of pants by telling them there were 2 legs and she tugged on a student's pants when all of a sudden, he yelled, "YOU TOUCHED MY BUTT!!" but she didn't. she tugged on his pants. if she HAD touched him, she touched his leg, not butt, but he was screaming bloody murder after that. the next day, during class, he comes over and rips up her flashcards. he told her b/c she "touched his butt". she was so shocked. and u know how old he is? 3rd grade! 3rd graders don't do that. geez. the other kid was acting up in class so she said, "why don't u just go home since u don't want to study!" so he just got up and left. again another 3rd grader. what rude kids!

FOUR...i've lost a couple more pounds. i'll be honest. i'm at 115 right now. i WAS at around 123-125 when i first got here. i had to take some passport pics of myself when i went to japan and when i compared it to my passport pic (taken RIGHT before i left for korea), there is a huge difference. i know my stomach and face has decreased in size, but i still have a kangaroo pouch. haha.

*********************************************************

in one of my classes, i always seem to run out of things to do. the boys in there are very smart so they finish the lesson very early and we have so much time on our hands. they're very active so they like to play alot, but i couldn't keep playing games with them all the time or I'D get tired. well, the other day one of the korean teachers, alex, told me that she had taught one of her classes BRITNEY SPEARS, "i'm not a girl, not yet a woman". they loved it! they'd go home and memorize the song and sing it in class. so u know it got my gears goin' and i thought that i should teach my class too! well, what american pop artist(S) would be easy AND fun to teach? OF COURSE, BACKSTREET BOYS!! so i brought my 'greatest hits' album and let them listen to each track and they decided on "larger than life". (not my fav, but hey, it was BSB!) a couple of them have heard it before so i was thrilled. what was hilarious was when they started trying to sing the lyrics...

"i...mayee...ruhn and hidee...when yourr skreming my namee allight!"
(i may run and hide when you're screamin' my name, alright!)

i had keep myself from cracking up. so then next class, i printed out the lyrics and passed them out. then we read the lyrics together. i was trying not to laugh, but i kept thinking of all u american guys thinking, "OH MY GOD...WHY THE HECK IS JOYCE MESSING UP THEIR LIFE? WHY IS SHE TEACHING THEM THAT CRAP! THEY'RE GOING TO END UP AS PRISSIES." later on, we're going to have a singing contest where they have to memorize and sing it. LOL! the part they hate the most about "larger than life"? the beginning where a.j. goes, "ah ha ha ha!" they said that's scary. hehe.

another class, i'm just having them pick their own songs since they're pretty advanced too. there's more girls in there so they're already thinking of what songs to do. i overheard them saying they wanted to do westlife's "my love" which is a GREAT song! engrish is pun!

okie i think i wrote enough for today. haha. (^.^)v

Squirted 9:30 PM by E-J Yi

swoosh: man, i love nike. what a great logo. marketing campaign. designs. nike is just too good. during college, i even looked for jobs at nike b/c i like nike so much. i'd take nike over any brand in a heartbeat.

yesterday i bought myself a nike hand bag & knit crusher. later on i'll upload pics, but my nike bag is SOOO cute. and the cost? only $15!! and the crusher? i think i only mentioned it to grace & julie, but it was the crusher that dirk wore once during an interview. blue & black. mavs colors. it was so pretty and i searched high & low for it. nowhere to be found, but i found it last night! whoo hoo! unfortunately i made a mistake. after i bought it, i went to mcd's restroom to try it on but it was a lil tight. then i saw that i had some makeup smeared on it. i rubbed the makeup off and RAN freakin' 4 blocks to the store (since i had to be at my tutoring apartment in 20 minutes). the lady was so nice and exchanged it for me. (plus i hadn't taken the tag off.) later on when i got home, the crusher was TOO big. ugh. so now i gotta go back today and get the smaller one. i'm so dumb. but for $18 & dirk's hat, it's worth it. :)

some punk lil kid in my 1st class on tues/thurs/sat went and told their mom that i spoke korean to them. HA! funny thing was, i NEVER spoke a WORD of korean. i know this in my heart b/c i had decided to never utter a word in korean on tues/thurs/sat. so my boss was telling me not to speak in korean, but i told her that i never did. she said she would check again b/c the kid could have gotten confused with me & the korean teacher, but man there are 7 kids in there...i wonder who the brat is! =P

it got ALOT colder yesterday. a strong breeze is "a-blowin'". hehe. but so far, it's all good. but my relatives are warning me, that a day like yesterday is NOTHING compared to the winters here. that kinda scared me. haha.

the other night, me, tommy, and cecile (korean teacher who's the same age as me) all had dinner together. at first, it was just me & cecile, but cecile saw tommy and asked him to join us. found out that he played football at abilene christian. and he has a drawl. even though he was born in cali and spent only 1.5 years in texas. weird. not really thinking he's my type, but i can tell that cecile is interested. should be interesting to watch.

there's this one kid in my last class on tues/thurs/sat and he's so cute! my favorite student b/c he's good-looking, VERY nice, and smart! the korean teacher would assign the class 50 words to memorize and test them the day after and he's the only one who'd get all 50 right. amazing. dang i wish i could take a pic. his name is robin. haha. anyways, i wish i could pinch his cheeks! (face, that is!)

have a good day ya'll! (^.^)v

Squirted 9:05 PM by E-J Yi

school, sew, sleep: that's what my schedule's been like for the past couple of days...

i'm moving further along with my cross-stitching project. i feel like i have so much more to go and that it will never end, but i'm determined to finish this thing! after this, i'm moving to making cell phone accessories. :)

last night there was a fireworks show near my cousin's house. but man, it seemed like the fireworks were THISCLOSE to us. and they were so freakin' loud! fireworks are so fascinating for like the first 2-3 minutes and then after that, you get bored and ur eyes glaze over. atleast for me that is.

ok, i'm going to brag about myself for a lil bit.

i'm REALLY enjoying teaching right now. (i hope all this braggin doesn't bite me in the butt later.) but i guess i can say that i'm somewhat popular with the kids. one korean teacher said that b/c korean KOREAN teachers are too scary and the foreign teachers (that are non-korean) are hard to talk to, so a korean AMERICAN like me is so much easier for them to approach. plus i'm "shin-gee-hae" (unique) to them since i speak english, but LOOK korean. funny, huh? anyways, i've been getting more presents (aka food) from my students these days and some of them have been following me around after class. i SOOOO wish i could take pics of them, but there's this policy of 'no digital cameras'. (does that mean i can take pics that uses film? =P) but yeah, i'm enjoying teaching alot!

end of bragging.

oh and man, oh MAN!! the new teacher, tommy, is causing quite a stir in our school. the korean teachers are sooo interested in him! i talked to him briefly on friday and found out he's from burbank, but lived in abilene for a year & a half. (he said, "i don't know why i went there." i understood, but it kinda hurt my texas pride. haha.) anyways, after that, these teachers were asking me all these questions about him. they are so curious about him and stuff. i have a feeling something's going to happen soon.

*edit* pic of nemo didn't work. sorrie.

have a great week people! (^.^)v

Squirted 9:39 AM by E-J Yi