Discoveries about my dad

The past few weeks have been very hectic. I’ve had many mixed emotions about things. I thought my dad was deathly ill and then when he didn’t look that dire, I felt some resentment for coming home. Then when he did take a huge turn for the worst, I felt extremely remorseful and sad about losing him. I felt awful for my impatience toward him in the past and apologized for it.

The 5 days that he spent at home under the care of hospice, I hope were some of his happiest moments. The number of people that called and came by was truly amazing. I hope that he felt truly loved during this time. I think that these 5 days were the surge of energy that the book that the hospice nurse gave me talked about. I think that once his energy was gone, after holding on for as long as he could, he had to leave. My mom said he squeezed her hand in the morning and then took his last breath.

We had a beautiful ceremony for him after he passed away. From talking to his co-workers over the past few weeks, I have really come to realize what an extra-ordinary guy he was. One of my favorite radio shows is This American Life. In one particular episode, they talk about group dynamics and how there are three particular personalities that can cause groups to fail: the depressive pessimist, the jerk, and one other that I can’t remember right now. The episode also talks about how there is only one particular type of personality that can turn this around. Only people who have strong leadership skills with energetic personalities that bring optimism to the group can turn it around. By talking with his friend, Ed, that has worked with him since 1977, I discovered that my dad was one of such people. Ed said that my dad just had the ability to bring people together on a project. To have them work together well even when things were not going well and people were getting frustrated. I suppose that this gives me one more thing to aspire to. I think I tend to be one of those people that feeds off of the energy of others and if one person in the group is a bad apple or has a negative attitude,  then I tend to feed off of that and it crumbles the positivity I was originally feeling.

At the visitation, I was shocked by how many people from his work showed up to pay their respects. Each one of them basically told me the exact same thing. They said that he was always the nicest guy and that he always had a huge smile on his face. When we visited the office today, we found the dissertation that the last student he worked with wrote. He dedicated the dissertation to my dad. He always loved working with his students and they also loved working with him. It’s really sad that he didn’t get to work with the two new ones that just started. He had to give them to his friend Bill Lonneman. I only wish that I can someday find a job that I enjoy as much as my dad did. I think that he truly never wanted to retire and that he would have continued working as long as he could still function.

The funeral and the burial ceremonies were truly amazing. I was very pleased with the hospice pastor and the people who made remarks. The entire ceremony flowed very nicely. The burial ceremony was also very beautiful and we had 3 national guard guys there for the taps playing and the flag folding.

Here are some of the things people said about him on the care pages blog that we kept during this time.

Dearest Robin and Family,
Your father supported you through many times in your life and I know you will miss him with all your heart.
Tim and I enjoyed getting to know him when you girls were planning that fateful trip to Europe when you were only 18 years old. We had to support each other during that time, when our little girls headed out into the world. He was very knowledgeable about world travel at that time and helped alot in your planning. He also helped to set our minds at ease, some.
I know you will all miss him greatly, he was too young to be taken, but sometimes our God has a greater plan, and we all must put our faith in a greater power and rest assured that our loved ones are in a better place.

You are all in our thoughts and prayers,
Candy and Tim

Seila Family,
May the love of friends, family, and God comfort you during this sad time. I’ll miss seeing Bob at work, especially his trips to the pesticide lab to borrow or return something.
–Elin (EPA)

I share in your saddness with the loss of Bob. His gentle smile and kind nature will always remain in my thoughts. Please know my sincere prayers are with his family during this challenging time. Marshall, EPA

I will always cherish the memory of Bob’s smile. Every time I saw Bob he had something nice to say and smiled. I will keep his family in my thoughts and prayers. By Beverly (EPA)

Yesterday I was bless to have the chance to see Bob one more time. He surely will be missed at work, he was an excellent researcher, colleague and friend. My thoughts and prayers for all the family. “Mi mas sentido pesame”, Maribel, EPA

Dear Seila family,
Thank you for allowing me to come into your home and spend some time with you and Bob on friday. Please convey to Bob that I miss his smiling face and quick humor here at work. My thoughts and prayers are with all of you.

Mark EPA

Hi, this is Francyne, Jodies’ friend from Athens. I haven’t seen your family for several years but I keep up with your activities through Jodie. I was devastated to hear about Bob and my thoughts and prayers have been with him for months. May you all have strength at this difficult time in your lives and remember the good times that you have had together as I remember our attempt to have a picnic many years ago as we travelled from one park to another trying to find a place to cook our little dinner. It’s one of my fondest memories.

Here are some pics from the ceremony:

Catching up after being back home

June 19th-

My friend Barabara from Capoeira had a going away party. She is going to get her masters in photography at some university in NYC. I don’t remember too much about the night except that we ate far too much galbi and drank too much soju and beer. The next day, I had to go to two more going away parties. One was for Ryan- a Canadian guy in the running group and the other was for the guy that Charmaine had been dating. She broke up with him and he was acting kinda strange about it.

Earlier in the week we went to the Korea vs. Iran game. I think Korea won 2 to 1. It was much harder to get in arriving late than I remembered from the S. Korea vs. N. Korea game.  Here are a few pics from the game.

June 27th-

I went to Japan with the rugby team. We lost by a lot but we didn’t have our best players. I got to play the whole game and most of the people that played didn’t play in their usual positions, so everyone was a little confused. Aroha kept asking if she was in the right place the whole time. It was soooo annoying. Amanda and another girl organized a scavenger hunt for the night before the game. It was hilarious. I was so glad that Terri and Claire were on my team b/c they were both ridiculous. Terri tried to get a guy at the apple store to squat down in front of a dog for our lewd picture. It started attracting too much attention though and the guy chickened out. The theme for the night was barbie. I attempted to dress up as goth barbie, but I didn’t want to be ugly, which I didn’t realize was necessary. I thought my dress was super cute and I’m sure I’ll wear it again.

July 4th

To celebrate independence day for the US and Canada Day for Canada, my friends organized a scavenger hunt around Seoul. I asked Maxine and Charmaine if they wanted to join too. We were paired up with two other girls and a guy and we had a blast. Our team name was ‘freakin orangie’.  The theme for the scavenger hunt was apparently freakin. So you had to try to say that as many times as possible throughout the day. Our team came in second place. I think that the only reason we lost is b/c we didn’t streak down hooker hill. I still can’t believe that one of the teams did that. I was NOT about to do something so drastic. I was also not about to swim in the Han River.

July 11th

Mudfest. It was cold and cloudy. I finally met some guy who apparently had been asking about me…. I was not impressed. Terri and I re-enacted the ghost scene with the clay when we walked by a station that had wheels and clay ready to go on it. It was pretty funny. The funniest part of the day was when Terri broke to the front of the line and proceeded to tackle the guys who were working in the inflatable mud pit. I woke up in the hotel the next day next to some random guy. I think we both woke up around 5 am and looked at each other and then he sprinted out of the room. It turns out he went into other people’s rooms too. I guess he was completely drunk and didn’t know where his hotel was. Annessa slept in a boat that night and some other guy my friend knew ended up on drugs and got in fights with people. I guess mudfest is a lot more fun when it is sunny and not raining the entire time.

July 18

On Sunday, I went to the pool with Deirdre. That was and interesting experience because the Koreans like to dress up to go to the pool. They also have funny rules about no jewelry in the pool and you have to wear a swim cap and you have to take a 10 minute break every hour. We aren’t sure why you have to get out of the pool. I’ve heard that it’s because they want to let the pool clean itself for 10 minutes and I’ve heard that it’s because it’s just too strenuous to be in the pool for more than 50 minutes at a time. We walked back from the pool and she took lots of pictures in sepia mode.

July 25th-

Hong Kong for 2 days. We landed in Hong Kong on Saturday and left Monday morning super early. On Saturday we went up to Victoria peak and walked around the night market that was fairly close to our hotel. We were all enamored with Hong Kong. The double decker buses, the tropicalness, the English speaking people; everything was so great. The only down side was the air-conditioner that was blasting in every single building. It is absolutely imperative to carry around a long sleeve shirt/sweater if you are going to go in anywhere. On Sunday, we went up to see the largest Buddha in the world. We also ate the most delicious vegetarian meal at a monastery at the bottom of the hill. Then we went shopping at the outlets and Maxine bought at computer. Apparently Hong Kong is the cheapest place in Asia to buy electronics.

On Monday, we went to Borocacy. Our flight kept getting delayed at the Manila airport and we are not exactly sure why. They were telling us there was sand on the runway and then they told us there weren’t any lights at the airport. We ended up having to go to a different airport and then we were shuttled to caticlan to take the ferry to borocacy. I later found out that a plane had run off of the runway and that a recent inspection had revealed that the runway is in fact too short. I’m not sure why it suddenly became too short because planes have been flying there for years. We finally got to our hotel at around 11pm… we were supposed to get there at 5pm. Oh well. The next day, we awoke to a beautiful view from the hotel. Kristy’s boyfriend, Manny, who is Philippino paid for 2 nights and we paid for 2 nights. He is apparently still very smitten with Kristy and wanted to make sure she had a good time. She did seem to be a a lot more high maintenance than the rest of us, who would have been happy sharing a hotel bathroom with other people.

We went parasailing, then flyfishing, and then island hopping on our one sunny day. Parasailing was fun. Maxine was worried the thing would break… it did creak a bit, so that was a little cause for concern. Fly fishing was amazingly fun. The inflatable thing dragged by the boat went up to almost vertical and I fell off 2 or 3 times and was about to fall off for most of the ride. I don’t think I’ve ever laughed as hard as I did at my ridiculousness there. Maxine was in the middle, so she stayed on the whole time and just laughed at me and Sara on the two ends. Then we went island hopping. First we went snorkeling at one location. There was nothing too spectacular there. It started to rain, and we were worried it would rain all day like it had the day before. Fortunately, by the time we got to the second spot, the rain had cleared up a bit and we fed the fish. That was by far one of the coolest things I have done. I was amazed by the colors of the fish and I didn’t have to touch any of them. It was like being right inside an aquarium. We also went snorkeling inside 2 caves on an island that you can rent out for the day for about $1000. We were told that people sometimes rent it out for weddings. Our final stop was more snorkeling, but instead, we got life jackets and floated on them. That was great. When the ice cream boat guy came by, we bought some ice cream too.

yes, people eat this. I couldn’t do it. It’s baby duck.

The next day, I went on an ATV up a mountain with 2 of Maxine’s co-workers. The view from the top was beautiful and you could see the whole island. We also got to see strange animals and got to hold a bat and an owl.

I went to yoga 2 days I was there. I was really impressed with the yoga instruction and they told me that the course in Madurai is amazing and that I should definitely do it. The day we went back to Korea, a boat sank on the way back to caticlan. I was really glad we were not on that boat, but I was worried about the boat we were on. It seemed to be quite a bit less stable than the one we had taken to the island and when we were trying to dock, we were on top of another boat.

The next week, I spent agonizing over making a decision about going home to my father who had MDS but has now progressed to leukemia. My school was not supportive to say the least  and I left on Saturday afternoon. I had a great Saturday morning and Friday night and I was really sad to leave.

Again.. I haven’t written in a while

 

 

May 16- Ali had her b-day party. The theme was Scottish stuff…. here are some pics from the party-

 

Dancing on the roof in the rain

 

me and dierdre.. i look terrible cuz i didn't go home after rugby practice b/c i got lost on the way there in the rain... it was terrible. i cycled like 10 extra miles... oooops. i'm much better at getting around Seoul now.

I recently got a bicycle. I LOVE it! OMG I wish I had gotten one sooner. Seriously.. it’s so much better than taking the subway everywhere… well most of the time. I spent about a week getting lost allllll the time, but now I can get around just fine. I’ve figured out that you can basically get anywhere in an hour and a half even when you get lost. I tried getting to capoeira, which is south of the river… and I ended up getting on an expressway instead. The map at the subway station was really misleading. I thought I could go straight after crossing the river, but little did I know, the expressway curves to the left and there’s not an exit for a really long time. Fortunately, there was a traffic jam, so I was faster than any of the cars. When I finally got off, I was able to follow signs to the subway stop that I wanted. On the way back, I was able to find an alternate bridge to cross on, and that was much better. 

 

May 23- Icheon half marathon. I came in at 1:50:07. 7 seconds slower than I would have liked. The course was super hilly and really hard. Those of us who ran the 10k, half, or full got a nine piece ceramic set. Icheon is where a lot of the ceramic in Korea is made and they have the ceramic festival here in May and part of June. 

 

Charmaine and Jamie

 

The ceramic village we stopped at

May 30- Gumi

Gumi was soooo much fun!!! It’s the most anticipated touch rugby tournament of the year because everyone knows how fun it is. It’s an overnight tourney and lots of teams sign up to play on the beautiful grass that a farmer in Gumi lets us use. I wrote an article for the Korea Herald about it. Here’s the link- http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/NEWKHSITE/data/html_dir/2009/06/02/200906020062.asp

I scored my first try by miraculously running through two guys on the opposing team about 4 meters from the try line. I’m still not sure how it happened. It caused those two guys to get the blooper moment of the tourney and in turn, that got me a 20,000 won bar tab that night. Here are some pics from the hilarious night.

 

from left to right: Liz, Loz, me, Mel

me and emilie

 

not sure who these guys are, but I liked the pic.

 June 6-8- Shanghai. 

I love Shanghai. I think I feel that way about every place I visit in Asia haha. It was so nice! It had lots of green park areas. It was very walkable, yet spread out, and everyone seemed to be really nice and happy compared to the people in Seoul. We met up with some Colombians that my friend Maxine met in Seoul a few weekends ago. They were super nice. Apparently there are a lot of Spanish speakers in Shanghai. Everyone at the club that we met up with spoke Spanish. Some people were from Spain, most from Colombia, and I think there were a few Mexicans there too. 

 

Me and Maria- from Valencia, Spain. She was super nice, and only has her left arm. I can't imagine.

group shot.. I can't remember everyone's name

Sadly the Bund was under construction.. I will have to go back.

delicious Taiwanese pizza

Near the people's square

wow! sanitation grades; the definitely don't have those in Korea

 

We went to the circus... these were all motorcycle drivers and they drove together in a tiny cage. It was amazing!

At a tea shop. We bought sooo much tea. It was all soooo good.

 

lots of kite flying going on in the park. Some of kites were soooo high in the air! This guy was funny b/c he's all relaxed chillin with his cig and his kite.

 

We all agreed these park benches are the most comfortable we have ever sat on.

May 12- Loz and Nancie had going away parties. I got to the restaurant before Nancie and sat down at the table where I didn’t know anyone. They asked me how I knew Nancie, so I explained that I went to the Army Ball with Tyler and met here there, but that we had also cheered at West Point, and had met, but I didn’t really remember meeting her. Little did I know, I was sitting next to the girl that had originally been Tyler’s date to the ball, that he had fired a few days before. oooops! Needless to say, it was a little awkward for a while. She’s super cool though! I can’t figure out why they didn’t get along! I think she’s great! We are meeting for brunch this weekend. I met up with Loz after Nancie’s dinner, and we went dancing and then had a sleep over in Ali’s bed. When I got home on Sunday, I had a message from Loz letting everyone know that Tom proposed to her on their first night in Thailand! I’m so happy for her! We all knew it would happen, it was just a matter of when. The wedding will be in Feb 2011, in New Zealand; I sooo hope I can make it! They said they have a bed waiting for me. 

 

Nancie, Mandy (Tyler's original date), Ashley, me

On Saturday, I went to Jeremy’s going away party. He has a super nice house! He’s moving to Shanghai, after being here for 5 years. He’s very sad to be leaving, and so is his family. He’s in charge of touch rugby in Korea, so that’s how I know him. I also met some other Koreans at the party, that speak really good English, so I’m happy to have more Korean friends now! 

On Sunday, Charmaine and I rode our bikes to Jamsil for a race that a few people were doing. After the race, I went to a bbq for the male and female rugby teams at Emilie and Dan’s house. Emilie had a company in Hong Kong, that she recently sold, that did really well, so she was planning on not working for 3 years in Korea, but she’s getting bored, so she’s planning to get a job of some sort soon. My little crush was there… and I spent the entire day being too shy to talk to him. But, finally most people left and there were only 7 of us left, we talked for a bit and joked around. Dan is hilarious! He was telling us about how he got beat up in Vegas by bouncers after he got mad at some people who didn’t know the difference between Chinese an Philippinos.  When I got home, I had a text message from him asking me if I wanted to go out for a drink the next day. I was so excited! I even told my parents.. they both said, “oh good!” I was thinking… are these my parents?!?!? Then I said, “yeah.. I’m so surprised.” My dad said, “I’m not.” Again, I thought… who am I talking to? Are these really my parents who are saying this? It’s so out of character… and very out of character for me to say anything in the first place. We didn’t end up going out on Monday because he unexpectedly had to get up early on Tuesday and he’s going to the Philippines this weekend, so he’s too busy to meet up this week. I hope he’ll text again next week. 

Today, I went to the Iran vs S. Korea soccer game. I guess the S Koreans are pretty tough because like in the N Korea game, in the second half, the players were dropping like flies. Stretchers were out of the field like every 5 minutes. A lot of the Iranians were wearing shirts that said, “Does our vote count?” We saw a fight between a Korean and an Iranian at the end of the game. The police were trying to monitor it, and they were so scrawny compared to the Iranian. 

 

Charmaine at the race on Sunday

 

Iran celebrating after scoring the first goal

We had a day off on Tuesday. It’s rather annoying because we had Friday off and then Tuesday. Why they couldn’t have changed it to Monday is beyond me. Things never make any sense here. Elle and I wanted to go to the beach, so we went to the island that the airport is on- to the west of Seoul. We got there and unfortunately it was cold and windy and cloudy. It’s such a bummer because it was a really nice day in Seoul. I’m beginning to wonder if it ever gets sunny on the western islands of Korea. 

On Wednesday, I interviewed with a head hunting company to give a lecture on resume writing and interviewing skills for a group of MBA students. I was confused during the interview, to say the least. The man interviewing me spoke extremely limited English, so Grace was basically the interpreter. Grace got me the job. I worked with her on a winter camp a while back, so she calls me from time to time when jobs come up. It seemed like they had decided to hire me and that the ‘interview’ was just a formality. When we got up to the office, two other girls came in, who were supposed to be helping out and then a third girl, whose English is actually pretty decent came in. I thought the whole meeting was very bizarre. I thought that one of the girls looked completely lost and confused the entire meeting. It also kind of seemed like a contest to see who could say the least… there were a lot of long periods of silence. It’s like no one could decide on anything. I decided that it was best if I just made the presentation myself and emailed it to them. I presented on Friday night, and it went really well. I’ve decided that I think that I really enjoy presenting in front of a group of people. I also thought it would be good practice because it was relatively low stress since there were only two native English speakers in the audience, so no one would be able to tell if I messed up or not. It went really well though; I had several people come up to me and tell me that it was really interesting.

On Saturday, I went down to Suwon to get a bicycle that I found on craigslist. It was only 45,000 won… by far the cheapest I’ve seen. I rode it to city hall today and it took slightly less time than it would via subway. That night, I hung out with the rugby girls… we had a team bonding activity at our sponsor’s. Today, I went to an information fair in the city hall area to promote rugby. There was also an international fair with amazing food. 

The beach.. mud flats all over the place.

Sooo cloudy

Some festival on a random weeknight in the city hall area.

The agricultural college of Korea

Our bonding activity

Ali getting ready to dance on the table.

Rugby and Dokjokdo

We had our first real rugby game on Saturday. We hosted a team from Hong Kong. I actually had a really fun time playing. I thought I would be really apprehensive to tackle people, but the adrenaline really gets going and it’s pretty exciting to try to tackle someone. I caught one really good ball that bounced and if they had caught it, they probably would have scored and won the game. The final score was 17 all. After the game, we had a party at our sponsor’s. I had to get up to meet people at 6 am to go to dokjokdo (an island on the west coast) but I still ended up staying up until around 4 am. Needless to say, I was super tired the next day. Here are some pics from dokjokdo… I had a great time and I hope I can go back soon.

Carla and Dierdre- they are officially girlfriends as of Saturday night! yay!

It was really cloudy early in the day, but it cleared up as the day went on. 

Lotus Lantern Festival

Elle and I went to to my half marathon race in Hanam City on Sunday. We only had to go about 4 stops from my house on the subway and then we got on the free shuttle to the race. I was a little worried that they might ask for proof of registration for the race or something. They didn’t and Elle and I both got snacks even though it was obvious that she was not running. The race was at the same spot on the river where they have boat races. I was a little nervous about running the 13.1 miles because I haven’t been running all the much lately. The course was kinda hilly and my other problem was that I didn’t know exactly how long the race was… I knew it was more than 20km and less than 23km. I’m not very good at judging how far a km is either. I managed to finish in 1:51:15. Elle was supposed to take pictures, but as soon as we got there, she realized that her camera had run out of battery. 

When we got back, we decided to go to the lotus lantern festival. They have this in honor of Buddha’s birthday on Tuesday. We got there and found out that it is definitely geared toward kids. Still, we both thought it was pretty neat that we got to make our own lotus lanterns. It is a lot harder than it looks. We also traced a design on really thin paper with ink and a paint brush and we were both shocked at how difficult that ended up being too. 

 

 

Elle was obsessed with this man's skinny legs. She was like how can he even stand up?

 

The guy who helped us make lotus lanterns. He went to the University of Missouri.

The flowers on the stick were really hard to make. This woman had to help me and I don't think she was very happy about it.

My classroom and the things I make my kids do

 

 

Sean is a boy scout

 

My favorite afternoon class being silly. I couldn't stop laughing at them.

Sean's diary about Guam

 

June's diary entry- he copies everything Albert does

Judy's diary

 

Sean's skeleton family

 

 

Sean was supposed to draw his family but he drew skeletons instead

Sean

 

Sean's bloody monster for his parents

another funny diary entry

 

Aileen was trying to teach Albert how to use a yo-yo... she's actually really good at it

 

I gave Sean a little pony tail one day... he got a super short hair cut a few days later

I made leprechauns with them to kill time one day

 

 

 

 

Nick and Eric acting silly for the camera

Jacob- the dumb kid in the class

Not sure why the all suddenly felt the need to lick their shoes

 

Judy- she said her mom would hit her if she didn't get 100 on her test, so she was scared to death to fill it out. She's like the mean cheerleader in the class. One day she said, "Oh Minnie doesn't know anything." I just had to laugh because it is so true.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aileen

 

 

 

Albert

 

 

Judy

Cherry Blossom Festival

 

We went to the Cherry Blossom festival on Yeoido Island as a school. I was perplexed with the way the whole thing was organized. Two people drove- and it took FOREVER to get the cars. By the time we got there, it was like 2 hours after we left the school. Gord and John got beer and lunch and then took the subway and beat us all there. Charlotte and I were annoyed with all of the standing around that was going on. It was just strange. We walked and saw some cherry blossoms and ended up at a cute street where you could get food at a number of restaurants. I had the best sandwich I have ever had in Korea. I was pretty impressed with that place and I will probably go back. After lunch Charlotte and I couldn’t take it anymore and left the group. When Gord and JOhn caught up, we asked where everyone was and he said that they all left. He said that as soon as Anna (the academic director) left, everyone else left too. I felt like everyone, including Anna did not want to be there, so I didn’t understand why we went in the first place. The whole thing was just very odd. I guess that it is important for the Korean teachers to participate in the group functions since it is their career. I think it is kinda sad that this is their career though; I just can’t imagine… anyway, here are the pics.

 

 

Couple shirts

Around the City Hall area

Cheonggyecheon

I haven’t written in forever!

I haven’t written in a really long time. My schedule at work changed and I finish work a lot later and I feel awkward writing in this during work hours; I don’t like the thought of people looking over my shoulder at what I am writing. I also have added a private that I teach on Tuesdays and Thursdays in the city hall area. So I teach that class and then attend the 9:00 yoga class and then sometimes I walk home- which is an hour and half walk. I’ve been stopping at a chicken truck about halfway home and that has been amazing. I get 2 rotisserie chickens for 10,000 won.  Ok so now about what I have been doing for the past month. 

 

March 7th

I got a visit from Delnora- this girl that I used to cheer with at wp. I will admit that I was super nervous about meeting her because well let’s just say she was really not all that nice to me while we were at wp. I met her after rugby practice and after she had gotten back from her tour of the DMZ and the amethyst factory. She told me that she wanted to go hiking, so I thought that it would be good to do a hike that is near the touristy things. I had arranged for Sookhi and Elle to come with me because I really did not want to meet her alone… but they bailed on me at the last minute. I was not too happy about that. We did the shamanist temple hike, which offers a great view of the city. She seemed to enjoy it quite a bit. When we got to the top, she asked me if I still kept in touch with any of the rabs. I said no… not really… just Matt, I guess, sometimes. And then I told her that he is getting married this summer. She proceeded to give me an update about a whole bunch of people that I really didn’t care to hear about. She also told me that this girl named Paula and her husband are now out of the Army and live in Michigan with their two kids and own a coffee shop franchise. She said, “Yup, they are just living the dream.” I just felt really confused at that statement and ended up not saying anything at all. I had a moment where a bunch of thoughts flooded my head at once- like ‘wait whose dream is this? is this her dream? is this or should this be my dream? this can’t be her dream… she’s committed to the Army for forever b/c she’s going to be a doctor… hmm why did she get divorced? is this what her new husband would ultimately want? this sounds a bit boring? who wants to live in Michigan? Andrea- bitch! (from Clarix) See what I mean- just too many thoughts to come out with something coherent to say. After the hike, I took her to Sondaemun prison because I thought she would find it interesting. I then took her to Ewha women’s university because I think the building is super cool and then to hongdae for kimchi jigae at the place where Ji had taken me a few weeks prior. Ji and I showed her around Hongdae for a bit and then she decided that she wanted to go back to rest up for her week in Japan with her husband who was meeting her there for a trip with Wharton. Here’s a pic of her at the kimchi jigae restaurant. 

March 17th

On Friday night, I went to this cool, really chill bar with Elle and Julia. I was a little freaked out by the amount of cats in the place. It had pretty good music and this guy playing the guitar. It was super cold, so we all had a delicious hot chocolate.

We celebrated St Patty’s day this weekend. I went to a place in Gangnam with the rugby team. I had a great time- here are some pics from the evening. 

Mary and Annessa

 

March 21st

We had our first touch tourney on Saturday. I don’t think I played very well… which is understandable because I had only been to two practices and I was not super clear on the rules. Our jerseys are pink and blue and say Seoul Touchess on them. A lot of the girls don’t like them because they are too girly. I think they are pretty cute. 

Carla’s 27th birthday was on the 21st, my birthday was on the 22nd, and Jillian’s b-day was on the 23rd. That night we all went out to celebrate our b-days. Katie also came to visit me from Busan, where her ship was resting for a few days. I was super excited to see her. Lauren, her roommate in Hawaii also joined her. I know that they had to jump through hoops to be allowed to come. When I hear things like this, I am definitely glad that I am not in the military. Here are a few pics from their visit.

I took them to Dr. Fish but unfortunately I don’t think they liked it very much because they couldn’t put their feet in and leave them there. I think it just tickles for a bit and then you get used to it and it just kinda feels like pins and needles. 

 

March 28th

We had a little going away party for Tom this weekend. I went down to the park in Anyang for it and we dressed in our animal suits and played badminton and basketball. It was super fun. We went to a few different bars that night and at the last bar, they were playing all kinds of Will Smith music videos and reggae-ton, it was hilarious. There were also a bunch of rolly chairs there that tipped over really easily, so we got into pushing contests to see who could knock the other person out first.

Before we dyed Tom’s hair ginger…. well we attempted to.

Brown- perfecting his elvis look for the final time. He got a rat’s tail a little later.

I also went to the North Korea vs South Korea soccer game earlier that week. The North Koreans seemed to be rather mal-nourished because they were dropping like flies and were getting carried off the field in stretchers. 

 

May 5th

We went to the Kiwi Expo at the Coex mall. It was AMAZING! There was so much good food. We just kept going from line to line getting free muscles, lamb, beef, salmon, honey, venison velvet juice, wine, 42 below vodka, and anything else that I forgot. The percussion group from New Zealand also played and they were really good. This is the only good pic I got of them from far away.

April 4th

We had a second touch tourney in the morning. It was much further south than the previous one, so Loren invited Fi, Carla, and me to spend the night with her because she lives pretty far south. Here are a few pics from the super barren field where the tourney was. It was also the first time a girls’ team made it to the playoffs. 

This team called themselves the ajimas… and they wore ajima hats.. I thought it was pretty funny. 

That night, Mary celebrated her b-day, so we went to Monkey Beach, where they have buckets of mixed drinks and table dancing. I know… seems dangerous. I also met up with Delnora’s ex-husband and his friend. They are both stationed at Ft Humphrey’s- south of Seoul and they fly Chinooks. I think that they had a really good time because they said that they never really go out in Seoul. We also took them to homo hill, which was new for them. 

Here’s me and Tyler– everyone knows him as the guy who was married to Delnora… and they know her as the girl that came to visit me, that I was dreading meeting up with. haha I think it is kinda funny. 

 

At school- we dyed Easter eggs with the kids. I took the insides of of two eggs for each kid, so they could have some to keep. I must say- that took waaaay more effort than I had anticipated. They LOVED it… they thought it was the coolest thing ever.

March 17th

I went to the Army Aviation Birthday Ball with Tyler on Friday. He sent me a text on Tuesday saying that he had fired his date, so he had an open seat, and if I was free, it was mine. I thought it sounded like fun, so I went. I got there and he had a huge cooler of alcohol under the table. He told me that he and Erik had won it through a raffle at the firstie club one night when they drank around 32 beers to make sure they had the best possible chance of winning whatever the prize was. I thought it was pretty funny and definitely reminded me of the outrageous things that they used to do. Throughout the night, a bunch of people were coming up to our table requesting drinks. I found it amusing that they would say stuff like, “Sir, may I please have a jack and coke.”  We also drunk stunted later in the evening once the formal portion was done. That was probably a very bad idea because I now have a huge bruise on my arm and I really don’t know if it is from that or from rugby the next day. Sookhi let me borrow a super flattering dress that she got on a layover in China. I absolutely loved it.

We went down to the club on the lower level of the Hyatt after the party too. It was the most packed club I have ever been in. 

On Saturday, we had our first contact rugby game. It was pretty fun. I was glad I finally got to see how all of the parts come together. I managed to tackle one girl, where we got the ball back and were able to score the first try of the game. My team won… a lot to nothing, so the undefeated streak continues from last year.

After the game, we went and ate on the roof top of a restaurant… It was great- such a beautiful day. That evening, we went to Tyler’s boss’s hotel room and hung out. Some of the people there were sooooo annoying. I wanted to leave so badly. I don’t know why I agreed to go in the first place. I suppose I thought we would not be there for very long. That night we went to Cargo in Hongdae for Cole’s b-day. There was a photo auction, where the proceeds went to the red cross. 

On Sunday, I roller bladed… which I am very rusty at and I fell and have a huge road rash patch now… great.