Jeju, Round 2.

After a week of hell, I needed a rest.  Jeju and a giant bed at The Shilla to the rescue. Tim, Janet, Erica and I spent 36 glorious hours drinking, eating, laughing and bonding with the island's nicest cab driver.  It was a weekend well spent.  

Check the pics here.

It's about time!

You can FINALLY buy the Wonder Girls' super hot single "Nobody" on iTunes.  Rad.

And just in case you needed a reminder as to why they are so fabulous...

Monuments to Consumerism OR Lotte's Plan for World Domination

Today was Pepero Day.  What?  Yeah, that's what I thought.  

Every year on 11/11 people buy massive amounts of pepero snacks to celebrate, um, snacking? Anyway, peperos are long slender sticks made from who knows what and are often dipped or coated in chocolate.  Sometimes other flavors are added like crushed almonds or mint (or crack, as was the case today.)  They are a mighty tasty treat, but really South Korea, and entire holiday?

These are the kind you get if the kids LOVE you...

And this is what everyone else gets.

Korea celebrates everything.  They literally will invent a festival or holiday to commemorate anything, but I think Pepero Day takes the cake.  

I will concede that Americans have their fair share of useless holidays meant for people to spend money or consume copious amounts of candy. (OR alcohol. St. Patrick's Day anyone?) 

So, in no particular order, here are some of the more ridiculous holidays:

Black Friday is literally an entire day to buy, buy, buy. People line up at the ass-crack of dawn in the freezing cold to get smoking hot deals on more crap they don't need.

Buy Nothing Day  America, you're not fooling anybody.

Autistic Pride Day Kind of an oxymoron, as apathetic seems to be the best adjective I've used to describe most people on the Autism spectrum.  Apathetic people rarely take pride in anything, right?

Singles Awareness Day Please don't send me your sad forwards; I'm well aware that I'm single, thank you very much.  And no I will NOT attend your "girls only" snoozefest cocktail party.

Might as well put Valentine's Day up here as well.  A whole day created to make men a little bit poorer and women a little bit more pissed off -- brilliant!

And I guess one could argue that any holiday Americans have "borrowed" from other cultures and perverted qualifies as well.  Damn, that includes any holiday spent either drunk or in a sugar coma.

Oh, and what about certain religious holidays?  (You know who you are?!)  One could certainly argue that when a sacred religious day has been reduced to a jolly old man or a giant fuzzy bunny that the day has indeed become useless.

Damn, that went south fast didn't it? Really puts Pepero Day into perspective I suppose...

Things you never hear in Korea.

I have a list, but it's Friday night and I'm not ABOUT to start that shiz now.  I gotta write this down, though, because I just heard a most foreign sound: police sirens.  

More later.

Stalkers

559 individual hits on my Flickr site yesterday.  Who the hell is viewing all those pics?

October Snapshot.

Damn it was a busy month.  A quick rundown:

1. Made it to the Jinju Lantern Festival with Janet, Erica, Liz, and Trevor in early October. Slept in the tightest pension, toured Jinju Fortress with the amazing fall colors, and saw more than one Korean tranny.  Check the rest of the pics here.

Jinju Fortress.

Jinju Fortress.

Thousands of Buddhas.

Russian Nesting Dolls.

Lantern Festival.

2. Finally loving my job.  Sometimes (okay, most of the time) Poly makes that insanely difficult, but if I block out all their bullsh!t and focus on what really matters, I find myself enjoying every minute of my day.  Good thang I got that degree in Criminal Justice...

3. I feel good. Really good.  Better than I have in any fall past, I think.  It's a strange feeling, this sense of joy and calm that has taken over my psyche. Usually fall sucks. Like REALLY sucks. But my supreme optimism is winning. Take that, 'Glass half empty, pessimistic American version of Mindy!'

4. Sara came to Seoul, and oh did we have some fun.  One giant house party, one stolen purse, a long hike up Moraksan, some sleepin' over, MANY amazing Stone meals, much pointing and staring, a Tiger Woods sighting, fuzzy bunnies in Beomgye, many 'Anyung Haseos' and 'Kamsahamnidas' and an AMAZING night in Hongdae that ended with a third place costume contest finish.  I'd say the trip was a success!

Making new friends in Insa-dong!

Justin's 2nd Anniversary Party.

Seoul Tower is for lovers.

The King and the world's tallest Girl Scout!

5. The Former Yugoslavic Republic of Macedonia relay team rocked Seoul.  Thanks girls for an amazing night!

Suited up and ready for the race.

Ready, set, TEACH.

The entire relay team.

FYROM in Hongdae.

Bar Boom, Hongdae.

I'm looking forward to the next two months, but many thangs will change. Jeju Round 2 coming up in a few weeks, then Dawn makes her Asian debut. And then Tim and Janet leave. Much sadness will steal my heart as I will miss gossip and homemade chicken wraps and mayhem...  Eeek, I've gotta stop!

Should I stay or should I go now...

Man, it's been a short month.  The weeks seem to fly by.  Today is my 6 month anniversary, things are changing, and I'm feeling contemplative. 

Korea was an option I had been considering for well over a year before I left the states and I never really wanted to limit myself to just one year. Weeeellll, an option to stay has just presented itself and I'm seriously considering staying.  Life here is good, the people are wonderful and I'm *finally* starting to love my job.  Oh, and the money would be amazing.

And Mom is not happy.

Thus is a life led with too many choices and not enough money.