Time for an UPDATE

February 23, 2011
Status: Alive and empty

There are so many things to do here and I have made tons of friends. Life is simple and there's no stress. I'm always invited to events on the weekends. I should be feeling great but instead.... I'm feeling a little empty. When I first got here I felt home sick and I missed my family so much. I thought I was over that phase because as I began to make friends I missed home less. There was a point where I thought "Hey, I think I'm finally independent and I don't need to cling to anyone to make me feel complete." I was doing so well. Now the empty feeling is creeping up on me again. Funny thing is, I don't think it's the feeling of being homesick. In fact, I feel distant from my family... like they wouldn't be able to understand how I feel. I wonder if this is normal. I'm surrounded by friends and smiling faces yet I'm not completely satisfied. What's missing? I think I miss affection. I need a hug and a kiss on the forehead. I need someone here to tell me everything is going to be okay. Reassurance- I need that right now.

For Valentine's Day, I celebrated with my friend- Keith. He was the perfect gentlemen and we had a blast.

He even got me chocolates. How thoughtful.

Jeju Island Trip

I went to Jeju Island Feb 3-6 for vacation. I went with my friend, Bebe, and a tour group. I met a lot of good people. Made 2 good friends: Gemma and Sandy. I had a great time. I did so much walking and hiking! I didn't think I'd be able to do it but I did. I think I was tricked into it. Haha.  I would totally go back to Jeju Island again. 

My two favorite places: the mazes and the beach. 

To the right: Trick-art museum 

There were a bunch of paintings that looked 3-d 

Outside the museum there were statues of wild life... why? I have no idea. I just posed with them. hahaha.   

hiking... i totally never made it to the top. lol.

the view on Jeju Island= beautiful

i walked down there to check out the water

reminds me of "lost"

found an interesting sea shell

lava tube

crazy hard harry potter looking maze

botanical garden

sandy-me-gemma-bebe

old folk village

everything starts to look the same to me.

at the tea farm

breath taking view

at the teddy bear museum

The beginning of my winter break

January 26, 2011
Status: Alive and happy

I finally get my two weeks of winter vacation. Wooohoooo. So far, I'm having a great time. On Monday, my friend, Steve, took me around Seoul. We went to Gangnam and had delicious spicy bbq chicken. I don't know if it was really delicious or if I was just hungry but it was the best chicken I've had in Korea. Anyways, after we had lunch, Steve took me to a really nice coffee shop. It was a big fancy looking coffee shop and every drink was about 6,000 won. He got tea and I got hot cocoa and a caramel waffle. That waffle was so AWESOME. We also decided to be adventurous and try the Dr. Fish for 2,000 won. I will let the pictures explain itself....

They eating the dead skin but it doesn't hurt. It tickles more than anything. I couldn't stop laughing.

Since we were around the area, we went to CoEx Mall. Umm... the mall wasn't that exciting. There were a lot of restaurants. Usually in the states, the restaurants inside the mall are in one area (food court) but in this mall, they're every where. We ended up taking pictures in a booth. It was fun.

Picture booth

I went to Myeongdong. The outdoor shopping district. It was very lively and fun as well. Tons of people, tons of shops, tons of street food, and tons of vendors. I bought a hat :)

I also got to see the river nearby. 

this was below one of the bridges. very unexpected and awesome.

Tuesday: I went to a Jimji Bang. It's a Korean bath house where people go to scrub down and relax. Woman are separated from men and everyone gets completely naked. I've never been completely naked in front of anyone since I was in the 7th grade so it was really embarrassing at first. After a while, I didn't feel so conscious because no one cared. I got scrubbed down by an old lady and then an oil massage. She was not shy about scrubbing my boobs or butt either. I felt very very surprised. I would have felt violated but I paid for it and I knew she was just doing her job. Haha. The bath house was huge. They have an arcade, a computer room, sleeping areas, saunas, restaurants, snack bars, swimming pool, nail salon, etc. The spa area was big too but I couldn't take a picture of it. I would definitely recommend the jimji bang to people who are trying to experience the Korean culture.


1. Go in and pay 10,000 won. You get a wrist band with a key attached.  They will also give your clothes to change into and towels.
2. Put your shoes in the shoe locker
3. Go into the "woman only" area and find your locker
4. Open your locker and strip completely
5. Go into the spa area and scrub down
6. If you didn't bring anything to scrub down with then you can purchase them with your wristband. They also sell snacks, drinks, and everything else.
7. Relax in the spa and get massages and scrubs if you want.
8. When you're done relaxing you can go back to the locker and change into the outfit they provided.
9. Go into the main area where families meet up again to hang out. Take a nap, go to the arcade, eat, etc.
10. You can sleep there over night if you want. When you're ready to leave you can change your clothes and go back to the front. They will scan your wrist band and charge you for the things you've bought.

PC room

Where people sleep or relax

another room to sleep or relax in

snack bar

lockers for shoes

I want to slap myself.

January 21, 2011
Status: Alive and regretful

I'm sorry, I need to take out a little bit of time to write to my future self.

Dear Future Tia, 

          The next time you decide to get your bangs cut by a Korean person who speaks zero English, just slap yourself and come back to reality. #1 you don't even look good with bangs and #2 you should never let someone, who cannot fully understand you, alter your image.

I look completely ridiculous. Today, I decided to get my hair trimmed. I told the Korean girl that I wanted to keep my bangs long, I just needed her to trim them. Well, she had no idea what I was talking about and I didn't find that out till it was too late. She gave me the same hair cut she had.... wth?! I look like 90% of the girls here now. WHY TIA?! Why would you allow this to happen?!?!?! I never learn x___x 


Anyways, today is the last day of winter camp. I'll explain what winter camp is. The students in Korea have a long winter vacation because it's like their summer vacation. Their new school year starts in March instead of August or September. They have about 45 days of winter vacation then they come back to school for about a week so the 6th graders can say good bye to everyone before they head on to middle school. After that week, they go back on vacation till the first week of March. I do not get that time off. I had to teach English Winter Camp during that time. I started on Dec 27th till today. 4 weeks of winter camp while the other teachers got vacation time. The duration of winter camp varies from school to school. My friends were lucky enough to only teach 1 or 2 weeks of winter camp. My co-teacher is out to get me so I had to teach 4 whole weeks. It wasn't so bad though because I really enjoy teaching my students. They're all really good kids and I didn't have discipline issues. Some of my students even wrote letters to their pen pals in America.

Ice cream and cake do not taste good in Korea. Ice cream is expensive too! pint= 5 dollars.

What else has been going on with me... oh yeah.... I joined a gym yesterday. I doubt I'll ever go though. Hahaha... lets hope I get bored and go at least once a week. My plans for next week: I have no idea. I'm definitely going to see a bit of Seoul though! That's a promise!

I'll write more later... it's too cold for me to think.

*Did you guys know that you can click on my pictures to make them bigger? Well, now you know :)

I don't like ice!

January 11, 2011
Status: Alive and COLD

Why is it snowing again?! NooOoOOooo!!!! I slipped on ice twice already. Both times I was in front of a group of people. It's so embarrassing! I love snow because it looks so pretty but when it turns into ice it becomes a problem. Oh yeah, it's still freezing here. I rather be cold than hot but I'm starting to miss the feeling of my face and fingers when I walk home from work.

Why I should learn Korean and why those of you who plan on traveling to a foreign country should learn that country's language. Last Sunday, I was totally craving steak and mashed potatoes. I decided to go to the supermarket to buy some beef flanks. I knew beef in Korea is expensive so I was prepared to pay more than I usually would. I tried to communicate the way I usually do... with hand gestures. I pointed to the meat I wanted and I held up two fingers. If you're fluent in "hand gestures" you would know that means two pieces of the meat I'm pointing at. Well, I got the meat I wanted but I knew I was screwed when they gave me a whole stack. I ended up buying 85,000 won worth of meat. That's roughly $75 USD. Needless to say, I will be eating steak all week. Lovely.  At least it's delicious.

Oh yeah, I tried octopus a couple of weeks ago. Not live octopus though. It tasted like squid. The soup itself was not all that great. I will not be trying it again :P

Right now: I'm thinking about what I should do when I get back to the states. Life in Korea isn't so bad but I miss my family. You know what? I've always want to bake for a living. Maybe I'll work at a bakery for a short time before I get back to teaching. I kind of want to move to Austin. Hmmm.... so many decisions to make.

Got lost

January 4, 2011
Status: Alive and disappointed

So I didn't get a chance to really talk to my co-teacher today. I don't know if I should be relieved or what. I did get to see her briefly though and gave me a fake smile and told me that we should have dinner together sometime when I am free so we can talk about things. She's really scary. How can she have ill feelings towards me and write me a nasty email then smile and ask me to dinner? I really don't know how to feel. Suspicious? Scared? Cautious? In the end, she nicely asked me to edit some more papers for her. She wants me to rewrite the paper, not proof read it. I wanted to tell her that it's considered plagiarism in America but I didn't feel like making things worse. Sigh* What a lovely start for 2011.

I had to travel to another city to learn Hangul today. The class is from 2pm-4pm. Well, I got lost and gave up when it was 2pm. I decided to take a taxi there instead. I was 30 minutes late -__-. The class was not what I expected. I wanted to the Korean alphabet (that's what Hangul is) but she was teaching us commands like "sit down" and "be quiet" instead. If I could read Hangul then I can easily look about helpful phrases and commands on my own. The only reason I signed up for the class was to learn how to READ. How disappointing, It took me an hour and a 1/2 to get there and it wasn't worth my wild. I'm trying to teach myself the Korean alphabet but it's hard when I don't know if I'm saying it right.

When I finally got home I slipped on some ice AGAIN. I'm starting to hate snow + ice. This day couldn't get worse.

Happy 2011

January 3, 2011
Status: Alive but upset

I've been pretty good for the most part. I've haven't written in a long time so I can't really remember where I left off. Let's start with what's going on now and then go back.

Since Friday I haven't been so happy because the situation with my co-teacher has been escalating. I don't know if it's the cultural difference or a language barrier but she doesn't treat me as an equal. She is my co-teacher but she acts as if she is superior. She tells me that she has all this extra work to do because of me and that she's busy as it is. She told me one time "I'm more busy than you because I am a teacher, a wife and a mother. I don't have time to remember unimportant things you tell me. You don't understand at all." I took into the consideration that I am in a different country so I didn't say anything to her about all the rude things she has been saying, but last Friday, she sent me a really nasty email. I honestly think she's upset because I have a lighter work load but our salary is about the same. It's not my fault and there's nothing I can do about it. I can't read or write in Korean so I can't offer to help her fill out any paperwork so what does she want me to do? I wonder what she thinks would happen by telling me all these mean things. I seriously don't know what to do with her. I haven't said anything to offend her and I don't know how she's going to take it if I express my feelings. She's insulting without even knowing it or maybe she does know it. She's seriously stressing me out.

On January 1, 2011, I went to Suwon to watch Harry Potter. The Korean subtitles were distracting at first but it didn't ruin the movie. The movie theaters over here look the same as the theaters in the states. The only difference is that you have to get a number and wait till your number is called in order to buy a movie ticket. That or you can use the ticket machines. I also went to the Hwaseong Fortress. It was freeeezing but the view was nice. It was pretty quiet there.

Hwaseong Fortress

The view of Suwon

Hello Everyone! :) 

Christmas: I just hung out with a lot of people from Hyangnam (my little town). Koreans really don't celebrate Christmas here so on Christmas day everything was still opened. The stores, the restaurants, the bars, etc.

Fashion: women wear really short skirts and shorts during the winter with tights or leggings. 

News: I'm going to Jeju Island for my Lunar New Year vacation. Hopefully it will be fun :) I'll update more later.