where did spring go?

you might think i made a mistake and i mean "where did winter go?" but i REALLY mean, "where did spring go?", because all of a sudden it feels like summer.

good thing too because my resentment of all things cold and Seasonally Affective was getting out of control. it was probably 70 degrees today after having been in the 40s last week (both numbers are total guesses, clearly). so i'm sneezy and tired a lot, both of which i like a lot.

just got back from volunteering - it was pretty hilarious today in that we were making picture frames for the polaroids we'll take of kids on children's day next week (may 5th)...but they were SO SHITTY! and time-consuming. and we all kept thinking, "if they were pretty and time-consuming it'd be okay but they are just so ugly!" i wish i'd taken a picture so that people could tell me the way THEY would've made them given the materials at hand...but trust me, there weren't a lot of choices.

carolyn and i are going to japan next week! i hope it's fun! it's definitely going to be really expensive...painful to pay $100/night for a place to stay when it cost you $16 three months ago a couple thousand miles south!

hungry

my new "thing" is to go to the gym in the mornings before school, around 6:15. now i've only done it twice, but that's a good average for me! the tough thing is that it means that i have to powerwalk from the gym to school without eating any breakfast. not that it matters because i don't really feel like having breakfast at my homestay anyway (or any other meals for that matter). but it makes me hungry right about now! i should start a yogurt subscription so i have a little mid-morning snack guaranteed every day.

so, yesterday was my 22nd birthday! i'm the worst at remembering other peoples' birthdays and i'm not really a fan of my own birthday, either. i don't know if this is really true, but it definitely seemed true in korea this year. i was trying to remember all of the surprise birthday parties that got thrown at/for me in college. senior year there was no party, but 4041 went to that coke frat and listened to the band with the asian drummer. junior year was the party at our house on sansom where i got all kinds of drunk and boycrazy! sophomore year lisa and doretta baked me some delicious muffins and dave took me to buddakan. freshman year ... i have no clue! and my blog is no help because did it ever make any sense freshman year? in any case, it's weird to be 22. i've kept thinking i was 22 already, because in korea you add a couple years for good measure (a.k.a. the time you spent in yo momma's belly!) so i feel like i'm 23! but i'm not. thank GOD!

absent minded like whoa

i could note that it isn't the MCAT i've been studying for, it's the GMAT. freudian slip! not!! gotcha!!!

i just got back from hanging out for tanya's birthday in kwangju, which was awesomely slothful! i felt pretty social and there was a really cute store there called "sandboy" which i visited twice because i always feel compelled to buy things from places that i appreciate :^D for their sake and for mine.

cab driver: where are you from? (referring to me, sarah, and aaron)
me: we're american.
cab driver: you're not american, you're korean!
me: no, i'm american.
cab driver: well, you're fat like an american.

later my mom said it's because people in kwangju don't like americans. it could also be because i'm fat like an american.

it's funny that i've gone to seoul so much more than kwangju which is two hours closer. then i've never been to daejeon. or daegu. a goal.

what's in: flowers

magnolias, azeleas, cherry blossoms, and forsythia! are totally dominating the landscape here in korea. i'll take some pictures soon. but they're beautiful, take my word for it.

lots of posts lately! lately i feel a lot more lucid and coherent than i did during my groggy grumpy hibernation period.

i just got back from volunteering at "beautiful store" which is like the goodwill thrift store of korea. last week was the first time i went, and i got to be a little salesgirl with these two sweet ahjeummas. one of them was really funny because she totally bribed these two middle school girls from her church to come and check it out, i don't know why. and TODAY i did some data entry. for four hours straight, actually. never mind the fact that i am not the best at typing in hangeul...they just plunked me down and had me re-enter all this donation data that they'd lost somehow. that was way fun because it reminded me of all the other jobs i've done that involve ridiculous amounts of data entry (temping at verizon, interning at kiplinger's, research assistant stuff in college) and how they make me feel like an urban cindarella. i was proud because i managed to finish the whole stack before i went home. plus they gave me a banana and a yogurt drink!

i'm showing mean girls to my students this week, with english subtitles. for some classes this is okay but others are just totally not into it. it's hard for me to understand what level of english they are at - all of us are so perplexed by the astounding level of vocabulary they are supposed to know relative to their complete inability to understand or communicate in very simple, spoken english. maybe next week i'll show it with korean subtitles.

i took a practice MCAT this morning because i have 3 free periods on thursdays. the instant gratification of computer-basd tests is like, breathtaking...i have always associated standardized tests with the walk from my mailbox to my house...ripping open the envelope...slowly opening the trifolded "score report"...so it was really a shocker to see my score come up just like that after i finished my last question. surprisingly/unsurprisingly, i did way better on the verbal section than the math. i was trying some math problems last night and they seemed so much easier than the verbal! but anyway. i'm not in a total shithole as far as the MCAT is concerned and that is a relief.

i need a workout mix! suggestions?

i never should have skipped a grade

i can't believe penn's spring fling lineup

lots of times i've tried to ponder what it would be like if i'd never skipped kindergarten. most often it's because things seem like they would've been way better. like this time!

omg!

vitamin c

vitamin c is what the VJ "soy" from pops in seoul on arirang recommended to people who are feeling a little bit tired these days due to the change in seasons. strangely enough i've been craving orange juice, which i usually hate because it's liquid calories. so i bought some tonight and we will see it work its magic! you know how there's good orange juice and bad orange juice? i guess i really like good orange juice, as do most of the boys in my life. lots of boys REALLY LIKE JUICE: one of the few things i've learned in 21 years. bad orange juice is, like i said, liquid calories and tastes like rancid plastic. it's hard to tell in korea, because the packaging is so unhelpfully homogenous.

so, i just got my GMAT book in the mail, and it's surprisingly challenging for me. and no, i haven't even tried the math. this is the VERBAL section! it's not that it's too difficult, per se ... although it could be. my brain just feels so rusty! i should also try to do some questions when i'm not watching tv and snacking. either way, though, it's a far cry from the SAT verbal sections which were almost kind of fun! this is not fun.

it's too bad. that was the one thing i was clinging to ... that even if i wasn't actually smart i'd be able to do well on the GMAT because i used to be good at this type of thing. but i'm glad. i'm not going to repeat my past mistakes (let's see, all the AP science and math classes that i just gave up on because they weren't easy. everything EVER that i have given up on because it wasn't easy!) plus i have an excuse. being in korea can't have helped my verbal abilities! on the other hand, i bet i've picked up some dorky male korean quantitative skills from my time at school, right?!

i walked both to and from school today, which is like, an entire hour of walking! that doesn't seem like too much in retrospect, but i've decided to let that be my "gym substitute", teehee! and i really like the walk. i'll take pictures of it and post them soon...it's quite scenic (except for the garbage and traffic and middle schoolers.)

today i talked to both nishad and won (scroll down) on the phone. it was such a pleasure! doesn't won look so happy and sunkissed in that picture?! he says it's dumb. nishad was really drunk and calling at 4 am in his office in manhattan. we're all unhappy in our own ways.

tony and i have a new project. it's not real in any way except for in our hearts, where all of our dreams are real.