I GOT INTO MONGOL RALLY!!!

The resurrection of the travel blog...Come July, I will be DRIVING to Mongolia with a small crew of people from London. DRIVING!!!

Now I just need to learn how to drive stick :)

I'm famous!

Or at least in a magazine...The issue came out, the article's been written, and they only botched up a little bit! And I'm not yellow in my picture either, which makes me very happy...

http://www.seoulselection.com/files/shop_attach/698p-attach-3.jpg

AAHH!! I'M LEAVING

So much to say, pictures to put up, and probably more that I'm forgetting...but I'm leaving in a few hours and so it will all be done when I get back...Thanks, Seoul, you've been a blast. Anyonghikaesayo...

Definitely not ready to leave yet...

Aah, 9 days to go and I'm freaking out. I'm wishing my boss had agreed to 6 more months so I could stay longer. But, keeping busy winding up things. Doing the last of my presentations, giving the last of my tests and quizzes and telling my kids that this week is my last week. Getting excited to see people from home and school, and hoping it'll be much easier to deal with school stuff when I'm in the same time zone! I'm thinking I'm going to have reverse culture shock when I go back...I think I'll go hang out on 32nd and Broadway when I go home and be surrounded by all things Korean...

"You look yellow, are you alright?"

No, it's not a racial thing. It's a comment on the fact that I cannot shake being sick here. I don't get it! I have had a cold from day 3, and for the past couple of days, a bout of food poisoning took hold of me. And what day would that have been? Oh right, the one where the magazine people were coming to take my picture for an hour. I didn't even make it to work til right before they came, climbed incredibly slowly up the 6 flights of stairs, and put my head on my desk til they showed up. I smiled for the camera, talked a lot (they asked me how to solve the North Korean refugees problem - how am I supposed to know?) and then they took loads of pictures. After they were done, my boss says, "You look yellow, are you alright?" FANTASTIC. Just what I want...let's hope some darkroom magic goes on back at their offices. I think the interview went well though, and it comes out on Christmas!

I saw puppies for sale in the subway yesterday. You can take everything I said about bunnies for sale a couple of months ago, including the fact that they could fit in your hand, and apply it to these puppies...If only I could put one in my pocket and smuggle it through airport security.

2 weeks til I leave...HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BAPA!!!

"Are you married?"

All of the English teachers in Seoul and surrounding towns were supposed to attend this big seminar on Saturday on how to teach English in Korea and learn about cultural differences and stuff. 360 showed up. The first half was entirely in Korean (followed by a translator, though they could've just cut it in half by having the translator make the presentations) and then some other people spoke on various things. One guy who spoke about culture brought up some the following most common questions foreigners are asked by Koreans:

1) Do you know you're fat? (As if we need to be told we're bigger than most Koreans)
2) How should Korea solve its economic problems? (Way more common than you think it might be)
3) How old are you?
4) What do you do and how much do you make?
5) Are you married? (The last guy who asked me this then told me I was too young for love, and then bought me and my friend dinner)

And this last one is the one that baffles me the most! EVERYONE who seems to talk to me is a) surprised I can speak Korean, or at least understand them well enough to spit something out that I hope we both understand b) totally intrigued by the fact that I'm half-American, half-Korean and in Korea because I want to be and c) cannot believe I'm unmarried! But answering the "are you married?" question with a "no" has so far resulted in a huge discount off some dishes, a couple of free postcards, a free dinner of street food, and a t-shirt. Score! If only it worked like that in the US - I could definitely use a free lunch or two here and there!

I'm going to be in a magazine!

I'm famous! Well, I will be in January...this magazine just heard that the place I intern at gets people from the US and so they want an interview since I'm an expat volunteering in Korea. Photographers are coming tomorrow to take pictures and the reporter is going to interview me, woohoo! Now, what to wear...