My Birthday

It's my birthday soon. I can't wait.  I started writing this blog on the 28th. I was going to talk about how it's my birthday soon and I was a little nervous about being alone but really happy to go to Jeju and blah blah blah.

Instead, I will talk about how completely kick-ass my birthday was.

I didn't eat these but my god, if I had, my birthday would have been effing perfect. Credit: Cupcakes Take the Cake

Anyways, my birthday really was fantastic. I could spend the time listing all the kick ass gifts I got, but I won't (although my new Hello Kitty watch, Red Riding Hood planner, Coke can camera, hair pins, kitty cosmetic case, skinny jeans, Milano cookies, steve madden gold oxfords, mix cd, rubber stamps, hello kitty pillow, and big bang stickers galore were all pretty tight^^)

Instead, I just want to say I am so thankful to my friends both back home and here in Korea. Usually, all my posts are about how wonderful Korea is and how much I love it here. It's true, I freakin' love Korea. Probably more than the United States. I love the food, I love my job, I love my students, I love the public transportation. But, even though I love it, sometimes life here is a little bit difficult. Whether it's communication issues or just the occasional bout of homesickness, sometimes I wish I were in the States.

I was very concerned about being lonely on my birthday, but I have been so well taken care of here, that I have hardly had a moment this week to think about home. All week I have been receiving cards and packages and little reminders about how loved I am back home. Then, on Wednesday/Thursday/today, my school co-workers and students have been so kind and fun and cheerful and celebratory that I can't help but be thrilled.

My students sang Happy Birthday to me maybe 15 times this week. Plus, gave me cards and letters and various little gifts. On student wrote the kindest note on her card: "Dear teacher: Because of you my English is developing. You are my best teacher. Please remember me." I almost cried.

Then yesterday, my co-teachers took me to dinner at a kamja tang restaurant (my favorite korean food) which is incidentally owned by the mother of one of my favorite grade 2 students, Minji. The kamja tang was FANTASTIC, and the conversation was good. Then, we went to a bar, where I got to open presents and eat cake and drink beer with people who are like my second family.

And now, it's a day of non-work work (although I should prepare for lessons next week), and them I'm off to Jeju for the 9s tournament. Sure, I haven't packed at all, and I work till 4:30, but it's all good.

God, I love it here.

Vanity of vanities

So I just added a live traffic feed to my blog so that way I could look and see about how many hits my blog is getting on any one day in particular. I think I'm becoming more and more like Joe at www.joseph-gutierrez.com in that I am becoming more and more interested in becoming an internet superstar. Unfortunately I'm pretty certain that no one reads my blog. Bummer. But maybe one day I'll become popular, after extensive k-pop blogging and other meaningless drivel that the larger population usually deems interesting.

Also, this week I've been getting Birthday things! Last Friday I got my first card. Then, yesterday, stuffed in my little mailbox which, by the way, is perhaps the least secure way of sorting and providing mail that I have ever seen, was a package from Paigey! I haven't opened it yet, and I haven't even cheated and read the customs form yet so I can be surprised by the package on my birthday. I did notice however that there was some strange tape job on the envelope that seemed pretty uncharacteristic of my meticulous, if not somewhat obsessive-compulsive friend, Paige, so I looked and that and discovered that this package had the honor of being the first package sent to me that was opened and searched by customs agents. Paige assures me that there is nothing in that package search-worthy, but I suspect it was probably the crack pipe she sent me along with the hash she packed into a stuffed teddy bear. I told her it wasn't worth it, but people just don't seem to listen to me...

Then today at lunch, a lady who works in our main office came up to one of the Korean English teachers and whispered somethings and my co-teacher told me that I had a package in the office. In fact, I had TWO packages: one from Sar-bear and the other from the 'rents. The package from Mom & Dad was big, but not too heavy, which is a relief because when they shipped Christmas stuff, it was so heavy. I cheated and opened a couple of things, but I won't say what because my parents read this (I think) so I don't want them too know too much.

Anyways, my apartment is a wasteland right now. So much laundry to do before I jet off to Jeju this weekend.

Yep that's right, I'm headed off to Jeju this weekend, suckers! The Hawai'i of Korea, as it's so famously called, where I will get to kick back and relax and enjoy my time... oh, no, wait, that's right, I'm going to play in a savage nines tournament and get my ass kicked by the weather and the exercise and the work and the drinking. Perfect.

This is the part of Jeju I won't see.

This is what I will see.

xoxo

A