say folks, i've added more photos. check 'em out.

btw, i took the school pics illegally. hehe. more illegal photos coming soon! ;D

Squirted 8:33 PM by E-J Yi

blood thicker than blood?: i never knew this until now...

your cousins on your father's side are more closer to you than on your mother's side. WHAT? yeah. in korea, the father's side is stronger and therefore, your cousins on your dad's side than your mom's side even tho the same amount of "blood is mixed in". yes, korea is still male chauvenist(?) in that way, but u just deal with it. i find it especially funny b/c i'm more closer with ALL my cousins on my mom's side. oh the laughs. haha.

a few days ago, i woke up with a dry sore throat. later that i night i told my cousin and she said it was b/c the air is dry down when i am (i live downstairs). well, i got a humidifier for the night and closed the door. big mistake. i think i took in too much moisture and i woke up with a scratchy throat. yesterday it was bothering me all day. and now this morning too. i dunno if it's b/c of the humidifier or b/c of the cold that's going around right now. i still managed to get through a long day yesterday, but i was so tired. >.< i was so tired during work yesterday (and it seemed like the kids and teachers, too!), but the kids were being good yesterday so it wasn't bad. i almost called in sick for my private tutoring session, but i thought about how easy it is to just talk for an hour so i sucked it up and did it. i'm glad i did, but i hope i don't get chris (my kid) sick.

before my private tutoring, i looked around the outlet stores near my school. it was freakin' cold yesterday so i was wearing a sweatshirt and a long windbreaker (my cousin's). i go into a store and see a brown, corduroy peacoat. very pretty. i asked the lady how much it was. she goes, "you're not from korea?" "how did u know that?" i asked. "because you have a nice voice", she says. haha. anyways, she immediately started to talk more slowly and clearly to me. i guess i could have been a lil offended, but i guess she was just trying to be nice. i wanted to try on the coat so i took off my coat and sweatshirt and immediately the lady and the other salesperson said, "you're smaller than u look! you're petite!" dang i musta looked fat (not phat) in my clothes. she had originally grabbed a medium, but looked at me and switched to a medium. i guess it made me feel somewhat good, but i guess i was looking pretty big yesterday. haha. the jacket ended up fitting me perfectly and i really liked it, but it was $110. ouch. i'm not a big spender on clothes, but i figured i could wear it back home. i told them i'd come back and buy it later, but what i really meant was i had to talk to my cousin and aunt about it first. see, you can't just buy expensive stuff in korea b/c they could rip you off. i know that sounds horrible, but it's just the way things are here. so my cousin and aunt said they had to go see if for themselves to see the fabric and stitching. crazy, huh? and i saw another knit jacket for $150. i know that one is high quality cuz it's a brand here, but i think i should get my cousin's opinion first b/c it's my first high-priced item i'm buying. i sound like a kid, i know.

well, this friday is the singing contest for 2 of my classes. in one of my classes 2 students will be singing "larger than life" by memory. i will have to record that on my digicam. haha. then in my other class, the girls are singing american/british songs by memory, but i let them pick the songs. i think one pair is singing, westlife's "my love". anyways, it's really cute to see them sing english songs. :)

alright, time to get ready now. I'M FREAKIN' OUT THAT NOBODY'S SHOW THE MAVS/LAKERS GAME!! AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

Squirted 8:19 PM by E-J Yi

funny things happen to me: i FINALLY met a CELEB!!!! but freakin' NO CAMERA with me!! >.< you don't know HOW much i'm regretting not carrying it with me...



his name is yoo oh sung. seriously one of my favorite actors. he's so great. i know he isn't the best-looking, but to me, he's so muhshisuh (charismatic/charming/cool). anyways, this morning i was watching tv about some (seemingly gay) pop opera (or "popera") singer. the singer's idol is yoo oh sung so they met and had an interview. on my way to school, i was thinking how cool it would be to meet him and what i would say, etc (i have a wild imagination). after school, just as i got off the bus and started walking home, i was passing by the gas station when i see a tall, slim guy walking with another guy. i look at his face and knew right away it was him. they passed by me and i was so nervous, but i turned back around and stopped him! haha. i told him (of course) that i was a fan from america. he said, "how? i'm not in any movies in america?" i told him i saw him movie, "champion" and he was so happy. his manager (called an agent in america) also was kinda handsome. at first i thought it was another actor, but was too embarrassed to ask. anyways, i asked him for an autograph and he was like, "sure!! it would be an honor". but i was like, "no no...it's an honor for me. sorry i can't speak korean that well." hehe. and his manager asked, "so what are you doing in korea?" i told them i was teaching english and they both said how nice it was. then i got my autograph and it said:

"JOYCE! HARD WORK'S AVENUE TO SUCCESS! YOO OH SUNG (signed) 4336.10.27"

and i know some of you are like what the heck is 4336? it's the year 2003! he explained that he is counting from the year korea was founded which was 4,336 years ago. very unique huh? most people don't keep track of those kinds of things. my relatives said he's very patriotic and pretty smart to keep track of that. anyways, i was so thrilled i ran all the way home!! :D still kicking myself for not having my camera. aish.

another funny thing.

last night i get a text ("moon-ja") message.

"hey, how's it going? it's been a while!" (in korean, of course)

i wrote back, "who's this?" (in ENGLISH) hehe.

the person wrote back: "what's your name" (in korean) haha.

i wrote back, "what's your name?" (in english)

they wrote, "my name is minam." minam means "good-looking guy". lol.

that was last night. this afternoon i was so curious that i sent him a message, "hi minam." i'm crazy, huh?

he wrote back. we messaged back and forth until i got to school. basically i found out he's 21 (darn it!) and goes to college in deh jun. his friend was the one who accidently sent me a message. but he was so nice and polite. he lives far away (ah nyang). he wrote, "it's funny how things like this happen."

and ANOTHER funny thing: this morning i get a phone call and i answered, "hello" and they hung up. i called back b/c the number looked familiar and he said he accidently called the wrong number. then he text messaged me and said, "hey, i've seen this number before. how's it going?" i wrote him back saying, "i don't know who this is." he wrote back saying his name. i told him i had no idea. he apologized profusely and that was the end of that. my cousin said this happens alot and actually one of her friends met up with somebody who accidently her a message. dunno if i'll do that. too scary.

ok, enough with the weirdness that's been happening to me.

one of the reasons i watch the drama, "sang doo, let's go to school" b/c the kid who plays sang doo's daughter, in real life, was abandoned by her mother. just like in the drama. so when the kid cries about her mom in the drama, to me, it just seems so much more real. well, one of my kids from school hadn't show up for 8 sessions so i asked the korean teacher why he wasn't coming. i found out that his grandmother who raised him passed away. even more sad, his mom abandoned him so that is why his grandmother raised him. he finally came to session 9 and i was so happy to see him, but i thought it would be so weird so be so happy about it so i joked around asking him, "who are you?" he was much more subdued that before, but today (session 10) as i walked into class, he goes, "teacher, who are you?" :*) it's really sad. my aunt said alot of children are getting abandoned these days b/c of credit card debit that korean people can't repay. isn't that messed up???

ok sorry for the sad stories. anyways, i'll be uploading some pics soon. remember folks: "HARD WORK'S AVENUE TO SUCCESS!!" i know it. i'm so corny. (^.^)v

Squirted 10:10 AM by E-J Yi

oh the things u will hear!: man oh man...

but let me tell u what i've been doing these past few days...

saturday i SOMEHOW got through the day even tho i was butt-tired from the friday night festivities at kiko. after work, i met up with my cousin charles and his wife, hee soo. we met up at kangnam station and we had hotdogs as a snack before seeing a movie. the hotdogs were soooo good! they put fried flakes (like at long john silvers) on your hotdog which makes it taste even better. i saw the movie, "hwang sahn bal" which my cousin picked out. it is a really popular movie right now, but i can hardly understand it. it's all in accents which made it especially boring for me to watch. kept nodding off in the first hour, but later on when there was more action than talking, it got a lil better. afterwards, we went to eat meat. yum. well, it wasn't YUM yum, but it was pretty good. i saw a b-list celeb there, too. even if i told u who it was, you wouldn't know. she comes out in skits on a korean-version of america's funniest home videos. anyways, after dinner, we went to a cafe to eat ice cream and chit chat. i was really tired, but hanging out with them was fun for me too. :)

Sunday morning.

so i get up at 8:30 to do my "doo-ty". yes, i was about to "drop some friends off at the pool." as i was sitting on my throne, i hear this lady and what it seemed like, screaming. then i hear a man making the same noise. GROSS ME OUT!!! freakin' the neighbors upstairs! i was so grossed out and shocked that my "friends" decided to not go swimming and i just went back into my room. EWWWWWWWWWWW!!! later on i told my cousin (on our way to Church) and she couldn't stop laughing. in fact, she was laughing so hard that she cried. she asked me, "why do stuff like that happen to you?" i asked myself that question over & over yesterday. *shudder*

i was feeling so grossed out on my way to Church. ugh. i had to listen to some music in the car to drown my thoughts out. all of a sudden, i hear some dj saying, "Backstreet Boys". the dj was doing a whole thing on the history of BSB!! so she would talk about their beginnings and played "We've Got it Goin' On" and "Quit Playin' Games". then she talked some more and played "As Long as You Love Me" and "Everybody". then she talked some more and played "I Want it That Way", "Larger Than Life", and "Show me the Meaning". unfortunately, i couldn't hear "Show me" b/c we had to go into Church, but i was pretty sure she played more BSB songs. awesome, huh ann? hehe. made me forget about the morning's events and got me in a great mood. :D

i went to Church all ready to go to the english service when my cousin noticed there were only like 4 people in the room and they were all ahjuhsshis (older men). so instead i went to the main service and listened to the translator. he was pretty good at translating, but when the sermon is an hour and a half it's hard to pay attention the whole time. i didn't fall asleep, but i was nodding off. but my cousin fell asleep. haha.

after Church, me & my cousin headed over to hyundai dept store where we ate pretzels, burger king french fries and a new japanese dish. it has cabbage, mushrooms, shrimp topped with flour and tonkatsu sauce. it was really good. then we went grocery shopping and came home. i was pretty tired and laid down for a while. plus my throat hurt. (i hope i'm not getting sick.)

and now it's off to school. see u kids later!

Squirted 8:16 PM by E-J Yi