Last minute before moving

It's 10 pm on Friday.

I will move tomorrow around 6pm.

I am a little annoyed that it is so late, but I don't really have much of a choice.

I have all my clothing packed (except the stuff that is still drying from my laundry yesterday).

I have all my bathroom stuff packed.

I packed everything in my bedroom (essentially).

My kitchen, however, is a freaking disaster.

I can't pack up kitchen stuff because I just don't know how. It's totally over my head.

Also, I ran out of boxes (I have one left and all my kitchen stuff left to pack)

But, I am way better off than I was in the last move.

Plus, I got word from the part-time job that she will pay for the visa run IF I get my fbi background check by the first week of September. That gives me one month. LET'S GO FBI!

Please, everyone, fingers crossed please. I really need this job. Like seriously really need it.

Moving and Tears

I move to my new apartment on Saturday, which I'm sure I've mentioned like 600 times.

Tomorrow is my last day to come to Shinheung Girls Middle School. Next week I have an English camp at another nearby middle school.

Today I have to move a bunch of my boxes and stuff from my office.

Yesterday I had my last dinner with two of my co-teachers (the two I am by far the closest to)

We went to the same place where we had our first teacher dinner, mostly just by coincidence.

It was fun and talk-filled, but seriously, it was so so so so sad. Seriously. I cried like a baby. We took some polaroids and ate and chatted, and we all cried. And they gave me this beautiful pair of earrings from J.Estina and I just can't tell you how thankful I am to them.

They have helped me when I didn't know enough Korean, or when I didn't know where to look for something, or when I needed to sneak out early to go to the post office or bank, or when I just wanted help with anything. They have so much stress as homeroom teachers and with paperwork and discipline and extra classes I never could understand how they managed it, but they always did everything they possible could to make my life that much easier.

It's not like I'll never see them again, but I won't see them in the same capacity, and it's just so crazy.

A huge chapter of my life is closing. And a new chapter is opening. It's exciting, but bittersweet.

I'm no longer in the beginning of my Korean life.

Left & Leaving

Everything is packed. I sleep in my apartment for the last night tonight. After that, it's throw the sheets in the car, commencement, GOING AWAY PARTY, and home.

I leave for Korea in 11 days, people. I am just beginning to freak out. My Gainesville life is pretty much done-zo.

xoxo,
A

Success

So packing yesterday was not particularly successful, in the sense that I packed one tiny box full of clothing to offer my sister. My room is currently a big fat freaking mess. I did three loads of laundry yesterday, and one clean load is currently chillin on my bedroom floor right now. I'll have to take care of that soon. I did succeed in going through a bunch of my t-shirts and being pretty selective in the shirts I actually kept. Anything that could even be considered slightly too small or slightly too worn got tossed quickly into the salvation army/garbage piles respectively.

My closet is looking okay. I threw out two big bags of garbage yesterday, so slowly but surely I think I'm making my way to a cleaned up apartment. The hard part will prove to be the little things. The knick-knacks the pictures, the stupid shit I never really needed but have now.

Last night, unlike the daytime, was a complete success. I went with Ximena (a coworker at the ELI) to a party at a student's apartment. It was mostly a Spanish-speaking crowd and as they and I proceeded to drink, I was heckled increasingly to speak Spanish. By the end of the night, I was speaking pretty much freely, and it was received really well. I hate speaking Spanish to big groups of native speakers because I'm concerned that they are going to judge me and then correct every little thing and I won't be able to communicate because I'll just shut down. I think I'm so used to being in school where mistakes are bad, and they grade your spanish in a very real way, with As and Bs, and I'm really used to being pretty good in the classroom setting, that the prospect of having other native speakers listening terrifies me in a lot of ways. I ended up having a conversation about Spanish speakers and American mentalities and prejudices IN SPANISH. Victory.

Anyways, today I will be going to the mall. Gap is having a sale (30% off everything!!!) and I have a giftcard I'd like to use.

Also, I will hopefully start to put some things in boxes and shit.

Goodbye Gainesville. 5 days.

Good Days.

So, I just had a pretty good couple days, which was much need given my previous post and couple days.

Yesterday I had normal work, and normal tutoring. Everything was just about average. After tutoring, I stopped by Zaxby's to cash in on my 5 free chicken fingers w/ purchase of a drink coupon for dinner. Then I had coffee talk. For those of you who haven't heard me rave about coffee talk, let me explain. For my job at the ELI, we have weekday/afternoon activities as well as weekend activities. Each weekday activity is sponsored by an LA (that's what I am), and then if enough students go, any additional LA that attends can get paid as well. I am the sponsor of Volleyball on Tuesdays. I also go to coffee talk most wednesday. Coffee Talk is basically just students and LAs hanging out at the Starbucks on Archer Road, drinking coffee and talking about whatever we want.

So last night's coffee talk was extra fun. It starts at 7 p.m. and we just hung out for a bit. Then I started a round of the wah game (long explanation, it's just a dumb game). Then I was talking to different students asking how to say "my name is allison" in their native language. So far I'm up to: English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Russian, Korean, Arabic. Korean is bar none the most difficult to say. Transliterated, it's roughly: nay il-rum uh (with teeth clenched) Allison im-ni-dah.

As coffee talk was wrapping up, a group of the students decided they wanted to go bowling. So, with about 15 of the other students, I went to AlleyKatz for Quartermania. I got a discounted rate (I just asked please and stuck the lower lip out... works like a charm!) and bowled for like two hours, till 12:30 with them! It was so so much fun! I bowled mostly with some of the Arabic students, but there were also lots of spanish speaking students there and some Russians.

Anyways, today was good too. Class was super fun. We played Taboo and the students just loved it. They got really competitive, as they always do, and it seems like they really enjoyed that game. One of our Arabic students got the word arab and he was like ME ME ME! Then he pointed to another Arabic student on his team and was like you and me are this... and he said "friends!!" It was hilarious.

Today I also go new headphones because my ipod earbuds were breaking. The new ones are a little bit strange (they go more in my actual ear, which feels a bit weird) but I like them a lot. The sound quality is really good, much better than my old ones.

Tonight I'm going out to Brophy's as part of Dan Reed's going away party/saddness. It's crazy how people are really moving away. First Ali, whom I'll never see again, ever. Now Dan Reed.

xoxo,
A.