My Birthday...

Is nowhere near over yet, but I just have to share how amazing it has been so far.

Last night at 11:45 I sent a message to Hoon, basically just that I was going to sleep.

His response: ㅋㅋㅋ 잘 수 있을까?? ㅋㅋㅋ Which is basically hahaha Will you be able to sleep? hahaha

I thought what?? Then like 5 minutes later I got bombarded with text messages from all of his friends who he told to message me for my birthday. So far I've received something like 40 text messages from his friends, and they keep coming. I actually had to turn my phone to vibrate so i could sleep. SO CUTE.

Then, this morning, he sent me a message and said, "There is a mission! Check your door before you leave."

As I was leaving my house, I checked my door to discover that at some point between late last night and 7:30 a.m., he had traveled the hour and 20 minutes to Incheon and put Hello Kitty Stickers on my door, with th sticker message Allison's House written out. Plus, he left a little post it note:

던킨도넛츠 = Dunkin Donuts.

베스키 라빈슨 31 (there shouldn't be a ㄴ at the end... idk why it's there) = Baskin Robbins.

So off I went to Dunkin Donuts where I discovered he had also visited and preordered my standard bagel and ice americano. SO CUTE. Then, when the girl gave me the iced Americano, she also gave me a bag and said that Hoon had come in earlier and prepared this for them to give me.

Inside the bag? This amazing birthday card that he drew himself!:

This is the cutest card Ever. I love giraffes. That's me as Hello Kitty skydiving on the left, and Hoon (he's a bearwolf... it's a joke between us...) is on the left. LOVE IT.

And so now, I've just been getting tons of amazing messages from Hoon's friends and family, enjoying a delicious birthday breakfast, looking in amazement at my adorable card, thinking about Baskin Robbins after school, and being really thankful for having a boyfriend who is so amazing and sweet.

I might cry I'm so happy.

Number 2

I recently read an article that suggested that Americans and their toilets have it all wrong.

The article reported that doctors agree that a toilet seat is not as natural or easy a means to relieve yourself as the old-fashioned, still-popular-in-the-East squatting toilets are. Reports say that people using a squatting toilet are able to relieve themselves something like 30% faster and in a more comfortable manner.

Additionally, people from countries that still use squat toilets widely (this includes South Korea where most bathrooms have at least a couple squatting toilets) have a much lower incidence of kidney stones (something like 40% lower) and that, we all know, is a good thing.

However, when it comes down to it, I prefer the sitting toilets due to my natural western inclination. However, I have no problems or hesitations using a squatter. I wonder if that 30% faster figure includes westerners who need to take an extra two minutes to mentally prepare themselves for what they perceive is a dirty, archaic, third-world bathroom convention.

As an aside, I have seen show prints on the toilet seat in the bathroom next to my classroom (there is only one western style cammode, and 8-9 squatters) which indicates that some students still think that a western toilet is for squatting, not sitting.

Interesting, right?

Right Now

I am at school.

I have one more class and then I leave to go to JEJU!

But unfortunately before I leave, I have to figure out how to transport my teams jerseys, and I have to buy cold medicine, and I have to pray that this douchefaced jerk at the jersey company agrees to pay the 135 dollars that were incurred because he's a big idiot.

Also, I'm really sick.

And my ankle hurts.

And I still haven't bought a place ticket home.

Annoyed

Spring has almost sprung.

Aside from yesterday which was extremely sad and cold and rainy (it actually snowed in Gangwon-do, which is RIDICULOUS) the weather has been getting nicer and nicer. It's been sunny and warm and bordering on hot. Sunday I work shorts AND a tee-shirt and was perfectly comfortable. AMAZING.

Aside from my ankle (doctor tells me I tore two of the lateral ligaments in my ankle... level 2 ankle sprain), which is still a bit bothersome, everything is looking up.

I saw Big Bang on Sunday in a stroke of pure luck thanks to two co-teachers and some fast ticket buying at the last minute. To make it even better, due to an unfortunate incident involving SNSD's Taeyeon, everyone got full refunds for their tickets. This means I went to LotteWorld Amusement Park and saw Big Bang for FREE!! Gotta love it. Oh, and Park Bom of 2ne1 waved. TO ME!

Anyways,  my birthday is soon, and I'm gearing up for that, but more importantly, this weekend I am going to Jeju for a frisbee tournament that I'm not supposed to play in because of my ankle. I'm playing anyways.

Also, my baby sister, Melly officially got accepted to graduate school, and put in her deposit at Indiana University and she is going to get her master's degree in Water Resource Mangement and I couldn't be more proud of her if I wanted to. She is growing up and she is becoming a lovely, intelligent, well-spoken, beautiful woman. It's so exciting. I miss her so much. Like more than anyone. I just want her in Korea with me. Korea needs to work on all Resource Management, including water, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that she'll come here one day. lol. not likely.

I also got my Dream Concert ticket/invitation. It's really complicated because it's not really a ticket. A student gave it to me, then I had to go to this random website to register my number and then there is a random drawing for 25,000 people to go the concert. I also had to use Hoon's name, not my own because evidently only Korean people can sign up, which is dumb.

That's it for now, I think. I have to make exam questions for my mid-terms today!! I can't wait for midterms. It's the start of a nice little mini vacation for me, and I'm very much looking forward to it. ^^

Good Things and Bad Things in the ROK these days

Good things:

Nova: He is finally not sick anymore, and he is also finally getting bigger. It seemed like he wasn't growing much but he's finally hit a growth spurt and so he's getting bigger and bigger all the time. He's still much smaller than Baram, who is pretty freaking big these days. But, now when they fight, at least Nova isn't getting thrown around so much. haha. Nova is eating like a little piggy though. Gotta curb that. No fat kitties over here.

Big Bang Special Edition Album: I got the Big Bang Special Edition 4.5 Album and it's really good. Sure, 70% of the songs are old songs, but those three new tracks are SO SO SO SO SO good. It's mind-boggling. The new direction Big Bang is headed is very western and very exciting. I just hope that their new Western style won't lead them to promote too much outside of Korea. Stay here boys!! PLEASE.

Skype: I got to skype with the League this afternoon. My best friend, Sarah was having a bachelorette weekend in NYC. Her wedding will be May and so all the girls got together this weekend to celebrate before her big day. I was really bummed I couldn't be there with all my best friends, but it was so wonderful to chat with them. I miss them more and more every day.

APRIL = BIRTHDAYS!: April is like the big birthday month for everyone. April 7th was Nova's 100 day birthday. It's not a real birthday, but 100 days usually gets a big celebration in Korea. For Nova's 100 day celebration, I ordered a mini cat tower for the boys. They've out-grown/pulled apart the smaller scratching post for them so it seemed like a good gift

For my boys. It's about 2.5 feet high. They are gonna totally dig it I think.

     Then this Friday is Hoon's birthday. Unfortunately his birthday present is coming from the states and will be depressingly late. But it's still his birthday soon!! And I'll make him some food and take him out somewhere or do whatever he wants. He's not used to birthdays being like a big deal, but I'm making him make his birthday special this year.

     We've also got three leaguer's birthdays: Nickipants, Stella and Nicole.

     Plus my birthday is at the end of the month (April 29th) so yeah!


BAD THING:

1. Dirty kittens: Nova and Baram have this annoying habit of pulling their poop out of their litter box and playing with it or batting it all around my apartment. It's gross.

2. Bum ankle: Yesterday at frisbee practice, during a box drill (a basic cutting and throwing drill) I was making a cut and as soon as I went to plant on my left food, I slid and my ankle rolled underneath me and I fell. There was a pop and a lot lot lot of pain. I went to the hospital later than evening and they said they suspect it's just a sprain but that if after a week it's still hurting a lot, I should come back so they can run an MRI because they only did xrays to check for fractures (none). In the meantime I'm wearing this ridiculously big splint and hobbling around. It sucks a lot and it's particularly difficult with the cats. I can't move fast and I can't bend down easily and cleaning up whatever stupid shit they do (spill their water bowls, play with their poop, knock shit over) is really difficult. I'm taking some medicine but it doesn't help much with the pain at all. Plus I have no idea what the hell I'm going to wear to school tomorrow since my splint is way to big for jeans, and I can't wear stockings or tights or anything.

Yeah, walking in this kinda sucks. It took me 15 minutes to walk what would normally take just 5-7 minutes.

3. Crazy Schedule Changes: Last week I had a crap ton of schedule changes due to some open classes I had to go watch at other schools. So on Friday I ended up having to teach six classes straight with only a break for lunch. That's five and a half straight hours of teaching students which sucked. Like a lot. Plus, I had to constantly switch back and forth between new and old lessons and it was super complicated.