if the kids could see them now...: dang i think i inhaled enough second-hand smoke to last me a lifetime...

last night after work, i went to dinner (tonkatsu...yum!) with some of the teachers from my school. afterwards, we went to a bar called kiko. supposedly the foreign teachers are regulars there. when we got there a bunch of them had been drinking already. i didn't drink at all and nobody forced me which was really nice. it was funny to see what the other teachers acted like outside school. a run-down of countries present: a couple of the teachers are irish, a new zealander, 2 canadians, an aussie, 1 jew, 2 gyopos (korean-americans...me & tommy), and 2 korean-koreans. nice mix, huh? and yes, the irish were the craziest, but also, the funniest. i had alot of laughs, but dang, i feel kinda sick from all the cig smoke. blech. i can still smell it through my nose. disgusting. one thing that was weird: one of the canadian teachers, kelly, i haven't really talked to before was going around trying to remember everybody's name and when she got to me, she called me, "julie!" i haven't been called that in a while, huh? funny thing was, there is no julie (teacher) at our school and i've never even told her, make that most of the teachers, that my sister's name is julie. weird, huh? i guess i LOOK like a julie or something. haha.

anyways, drank about half of my peach tea (given to me in a measuring cup!) and got home around 2:30. i think the best thing that came out of the night was one of the korean teachers said she was friends with alot of gyopos who were well-educated and working in investment firms (lehman bros, etc). she said she would invite me out when she meets up with her friends (she lives in chung dahm). jokingly (but half-serious), i asked her if any of them were good-looking and she said, "not really good-looking, but very smart and nice. most of them are ivy-league educated. harvard, stanford, like that." CHI-CHING!! haha. i can live with that. hehe.

btw, i woke up this morning remembering one of my dreams from last night. i was eating a filet-o-fish meal with the foreign teachers while discussing yao ming. yes, i know i'm soooo weird.

another btw: i received some bday presents from some of the kids at school. one student gave me 2 pens which i love. another student gave me 'the body shop' soap and a cute, stuffed turtle. the 3rd student gave me 3 pens, a small notebook, a snoopy folder, and a small heating pad. how nice, huh? :D

now i gotta get ready to go to school. work for 3 hrs and then meet up with my cousin charles and his wife for dinner. going to Church tomorrow (happy, Chae?) with my cousin and this time to the english service. go me. (^.^)v

Squirted 8:54 PM by E-J Yi

t.g.i.f.: oh wait, i have to work TOMORROW, too! gosh darn...

wednesday night i saw "scandal" which was pretty good. they made it JUST like "dangerous liasions". the korean costumes (han-boks) were so pretty and so was the setting of the whole movie. the actresses were so pretty too. i was kinda surprised by the movie b/c it kinda showed a lot of nudity. anyways, i finally saw a movie i hadn't seen once before. :)

it has gotten (again) colder than before. it's now officially sweatshirt weather for me. there's women out there wearing coats (or as sam would say, "BAH BAH REE") and mufflers, but it's not THAT cold. my relatives are telling me that i need to get thermal underwear, but we'll see about that. oh, and i hate scarves and mufflers, but i guess i'll end up liking them since it's so cold here. or so i'm told. haha.

luckily for me, i didn't have any parental observations at school this month. so i "dressed up" for nothing. dressing up for me was wearing a button-down shirt. haha. i'm just glad it's over with. now i can wear a sweatshirt today instead of a nice sweater. hehe. oh ann! in my beginner class, one of my students said he wanted to be a singer when he was all "grown up". so i asked him, "what's your favorite song?" guess what he said?! "RARGER THAN RIFE!" ("Larger than Life") :D i clapped with delight when he told me. (i never told him i liked BSB.) hahaha. it's funny how alot of boys like that song. anyways, it showed me how popular they are!

u really don't realize how lucky u are to be an american until ur in a foreign country as i have experienced. u don't realize how difficult english is to learn as a second language. how lucky we are to just learn it as our native language. yesterday my cousin and i were talking about the differences in english, korean, and japanese (my cousin teaches japanese). in english, we have the words, "this" and "that" to describe distances. "this" is of a close proximity while "that" describes an area a bit farther off. in the korean & japanese languages there are 3 words to describe distances. they have the words for "this" and "that", but they also have a word for "midpoint BETWEEN" this and that. how confusing, huh?? that's what makes it hard for non-koreans to learn korean (or japanese). on the other hand, when we describe "wearing" something; it applies to nearly everything on our body: we WEAR shirts, pants, socks, shoes, earrings, necklaces, bracelets, hats, etc. in the korean language, there are different ways to say wear for a specific article of clothing or jewelry. i still get confused when i talk about that. anyways, it's funny how different languages can be.

sorry for the meaningless above paragraph.

tonight i'm eating dinner with one of the korean teachers, carrie. tomorrow i'm (maybe) meeting my cousin charles and his wife to hang out. so i guess i'll be eating out alot this weekend. anyways, hope u kids are doing well. oh and...

GO MAVS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Squirted 9:23 PM by E-J Yi

what's goin' on:

wassup. a lil update on what's been happening...

yesterday i had to travel far. what me, my relatives, and my boss calculated to be an hour-long subway ride, actually took me an hour and 30 minutes. ugh. but mistakes on my part. i was supposed to go to the seoul immigration office in oh mok dong by 10am. ugh. first of all, i get on the subway car heading in the wrong direction. but seriously ya'll, i ain't stupid. the signs that point in the same direction AND the cars that GO in the same direction are. i'm not kidding. it's so weird. so i get off at the next stop and get back on into the right direction. what me, my relatives, and my boss didn't realize is that i had to transfer off of the green line i was taking to get onto ANOTHER green line. freakin' wasted 10 minutes waiting. all of a sudden the subway driver tells everybody to get off. he turns off all the lights and just leaves. oing? weird. i finally realize that i have to transfer to another subway line. then i have to transfer to the purple line. i freakin' ran cuz there was a guy waiting for me to take me to the immigration office. i was 30 minutes late. and it was raining. ugh. we finally got there. thank goodness there wasn't a line. i got fingerprinted and submitted my application for alien registration. and got home by 12:30.

today's open day at my school. which means parents can freely come to see their kids' classes. omg. help me ya'll. pray for me. i think alot of parents are wanting to see me since i'm korean-american. trying to see if i'm going to speak some korean by accident. oh man oh man. and i have to dress up. but on the other hand...

i'm going to watch a movie tonight with my cousin!! both of us have been wantin to watch this movie called "scandal". it's a korean version of "dangerous liasions" set in the old korean times. where everybody wore traditional costumes. it's been very popular so we're gonna see it tonight. hehe.

man i'm sooooo hyped about the mavs this season!! i'm SOOOOO happy they got rid of raef!!! i might be the only one (well, except for cuban) who likes bradley more than raef. and we got delk and walker for him??? freakin' STEAL! not sure how dirk and fortson is gonna handle center, but we'll see. i hope SOMEBODY broadcasts the mavs/lakers game. should be good!!

oh and last night i wake up 3:41am b/c i have a freakin' mosquito bite on my foot. one of the worst places. i was so mad. so i got that new fangled tennis racket that electrocutes them. i turned on a lil light and waited for the mosquito. sure enough, "eeeeee~" i pushed the button (that send electricity through the wires) and started waving the racket like a mad woman. i didn't hear a popping sound. so i get up and sit absolutely still to hear if it's still alive. i hear nothing. or do i? or is that my imagination? (that's what i hate the MOST about mosquitos...i'm never sure if i hear one or not after i kill one.) anyways, i put on my glasses and look at my pillow. next to it is a dead mosquito!!! HOORAY!!! and there's all this blood on my pillow. MY BLOOD!! i get a piece of paper to pick up its dead body and more blood gets onto the paper. HOW MUCH FREAKIN' BLOOD DID IT TAKE OUT OF ME?? anyways, i was sooo happy that i killed it. i'm serious ya'll. this thing is THE best. and fun!



(not sure if this pic is gonna work.)

okie, time for me to get ready! thanks to the pyuns for the bday mpeg!! made me cry, but made my day! (^.^)V

Squirted 9:16 PM by E-J Yi

happy 24th bday to me!: and i saw my 1st korean transgender! but first...

yesterday me, my cousin ji yun, my aunt, my aunt's cousin from japan, and my uncle (the other bday guest of honor) all went to a japanese restaurant for lunch. it was so yummy! i even ate sushi that had lil flower petals on it. whoa. i ate a flower. anyways, i stuffed myself with eel (unagi), assorted sashimi, and miso soup. there was a bunch of other appetizers i ate, but too numerous to recall. unfortunately (but fortunately for me), i found a small piece of wire brush in the udon. i didn't want to eat the udon anyway, but my uncle told the management about it. (my uncle is a regular there so he didn't make a big fuss, but i hope they gave him a discount.) i came home and did cross-stitching for the rest of the day. not really eventful, but it was relaxing. dang, i was so full from the sushi. (^.^)

SATURDAY night (the day before), i went to dinner with 2 korean teachers, bunny & sally. bunny lived in the US for about 12 years so she speaks english & korean really well. anyways, we went to apkujung to eat spaghetti which was pretty good. i was so surprised, but bunny paid for our expensive meal. then sally said she'd buy ice cream. (both are older than me.) so we went to haagen-dazs for dessert. it was so yummy. hehe. anyways, while we were sitting down talking, a TALL woman comes in wearing j.lo-type HOT PINK sweats and a black trucker hat turned to a 45 degree angle. immediately bunny mouths "transgender" and i look and sure enough, it was a transgender. it wasn't a drag queen, but a total transgender. freak nasty, huh?! haha. (s)he kept primping her(his)self in the reflection of the mirror while the employees at haagen-dazs kept staring. it was totally disgusting. later on, sally said (i didn't notice) that (s)he had huge hands and feet. ewww! definitely "walked like a lady". when i came home and told my cousin about it, she laughed so hard and wished she said "it" too. haha.

i have found a new friend. it looks like a tennis racket, but it does so much more. it ELECTROCUTES bugs!!! it's freakin' awesome. so far i've electrocuted a mosquito and a small moth. when it electrocutes the bug, u hear a popping sound and a flash of light. my cousin said that i can have theirs, but no, i'm going to buy maybe 2 or 3. it's fun to kill bugs!! :D

ok, gotta get ready for another bday lunch with my aunt. and then 60 individual speaking tests today. ugh. i'm gonna be tired. (^.^)v

Squirted 8:37 PM by E-J Yi