Things I am looking forward to- a running list...

1. riding a bicycle and not being afraid of being run over by a speeding vehicle
2. riding in a vehicle in which the driver actually knows how to drive and does not use the gas.brake.gas.brake. method the Koreans are so fond of
3. driving a car
4. brownies
5. cake
6. cookies
7. an almost limitless supply of cereal
8. normal and delicious bread
9. bagels
10. cheese!
11. Middleswarth BBQ chips
12. OIP's grilled chicken delux
13. pizza without corn
14. pizza without a side of pickles, though I do like the pickles
15. dill pickles
16. a comfortable bed
17. a comfortable pillow
18. a comfortable couch
19. Tide
20. a dryer
21. a clothesline
22. an oven
23. being surrounded by people who speak the same language as me
24. family
25. friends
26. not being 13 hours ahead of family and friends
27. hot wings
28. Cuban sandwich
29. Lewisburg Farmer's Market
30. Ithaca Farmer's Market and the vendor food it offers

When we get home, I need to remember to not eat all of this stuff at one time and to not over do it. I was just talking with my co-worker, Megan, and we both decided we could probably eat half a pound of pepper jack cheese- me with Tiscuts and her with Wheat Thins- but that it would no doubt be a horrible idea to do so.

Home Again

Well, Jeju-Do wasn't as fun as we had hoped it would be. We are home again and it's raining again. For some reason it also smells like garlic bread or something else garlic-y here. I'm pretty sure the only people in the apartment building are me and Preston and the old people on the first floor. They must be cooking the garlic.

We have about 5 weeks left in Korea and we are both ready to come home. We have next week off too for summer vacation so we are going to start packing up our stuff. Sorting out what we don't want to take home and mailing some other stuff home.

There are some pictures from Jeju on the picasa site. We went to a place called Love Land and there are many pictures from there as well. Love Land is a statue park built in the 50's after the war to show newly married couples how to.. do it. It was funny and strange in this country that is typically so consevative.

Well, i'm gonna go try to watch Weeds. It's been loading for the past hour and it's still not done. And it's only a 28 minute show...

Ginseng Chicken Soup

Today is chobak- the day that starts the hottest period of the summer in Korea. Coincidentally, it is 82 degrees in our apartment- the hottest it has been so far this summer...

On this day, it is the Korean custom to eat samgyetang- Ginseng Chicken Soup. It is supposed to build up nutrients lost from sweating too much. The other traditional food to eat today is boshintang- Dog Meat Soup.

Needless to say, we are having sam-gye-tang tonight.

More info...

New Photos at

Picasa

Dragonflies

I have never seen so many...

There are dragonflies everywhere here. Usually you only see them around water, but not here. They fill the air like gnats. It's pretty crazy, hopefully I can get a good picture or video of them because it's something to see.

I have some pictures to post from last weekend. Preston and I went to Masan, but before going there, we went out to Upo for a bit. The old man working as the parking attendant at Upo talked to us for like 20 minutes or so. He is teaching himself English, I guess. It was difficult to understand him sometimes, it was a strange accent and he was speaking very fast. He had whole informational brochures memorized and he was telling us about the Ice House in Changnyeong and about the ecology at Upo. It was pretty impressive that he was able to remember so much in a different language.

Preston bought our tickets home this morning. On September 1st, we will be flying into Pensacola, Florida. Oh man, I can't believe we have tickets already. We still have 54 days, but wow. I'm excited. Preston is telling Richard now. Preston started by telling Richard he is very sad.

Well, it's time for Jeremy and I to take our class to watch a DVD. We are watching The Incredibles, even though it exceedes our time limit.

Videos

It's the Korean Monsoon season.

Little dancers... the kid in the camo falls but keeps playing his maracas!

Musical chairs!

Time and Other Things

Months and holidays really have no meaning here. Today is the first day of July. This weekend is the 4th of July! Last week could have been New Years. It's really hard to believe it's already July. If it weren't for the heat and humidity it would be hard to believe its summer. All of the things we are used to to mark something- the end of a school year, holidays, anything- just aren't here. It's kind of strange. This weekend Preston and I might go see Transformers, but I'm pretty sure there will be nothing to distinguish it as a special weekend, just the same as all the ones before and pretty similiar to the ones to follow. (Except for the weekend before we leave, that one will be special!)

Anyway, last weekend we went to Seoul with Chris. He was taking the LSAT and wanted some company. Seoul is exausting. We had a crappy hotel and hardly slept at all. In Korea, generally the only kind of hotel you can find is a love motel. Some we went into wouldn't even let us check in until 11PM!! We really just wanted to sleep. I mean, I go to bed at 10:30 most nights... We finally found one that would let us check in right then, about 4pm. The rooms were tiny, but had a 50inch flat panel TV and a computer. Unfortunately, there was bass pumping all night and then we heard people having sex above us, so Preston and I slept about 1 hour that night. The next morning we did get some pretty good bagels from Dunkin Donuts, though. And for the first time ever I got mine with cream cheese because I don't think they offer butter. Well, I need to go watch Weeds, but I will leave you with some photos...

The university Chris took the LSAT at was one of the first colleges established in Korea in 1885. It looked like we were in England instead of Korea-

That is a huge TV screen. Oh yeah, there was also a PlayStation and a DVD player. They had DVDs and games at the front desk. Preston and I watched Blood Diamond.