Vacation

And not a moment too soon! The thought of tossing some students out the window these past few days has been almost too much to bear.

I haven't even begun to pack for Bali yet, haven't done laundry, not even really sure what suitcase I'm gonna take. Though I'm sure that whenever and whatever I decide to pack, it will be much more organized than my method for Thailand last year, which consisted of me going out to the bar, getting drunk and then packing in a rushed, drunken haze to get on the 4 am bus outta Daejeon. Ah last year, I kinda miss it these days, I've become too reclusive lately and my New Year's resolution may in fact be to drink and party more.

I'm almost over my cold. I've been taking it easy this week, which has really just meant refusing to go to the gym (and the cold was a wonderfully convenient excuse) and sleeping for extreme lengths of time, which I kinda feel guilty about but I'll get back on track once vacation is over.

ANyhow hopefully the internet connection in Bali isn't awful so that I can post at some point!

Ta-ta for now!

Merry Christmas!

Once again I've been shit at posting lately, but in my defense I was knocked on my butt due to a bad cold this weekend and then Christmas time is hectic, even in Korea, especially when ya only get one day off to get in all your celebrating.

Starting to feel better now, have a bit more energy and can almost breathe normally, and I made it through yesterday's festivities which was really all I cared about.

Christmas Eve a few of us had planned to go to Outback for dinner, but apparently so had the rest of Daejeon and we couldn't be bothered to wait for a table. The line up at Bennigan's was worse and we didn't even attempt TGIFs and instead up at a Korean dukgalbi restaurant, which is normally my favorite Korean meal, but this restaurant was awful and it was probably the least favorite Christmas Eve meal I've ever had, including air plane food on my way to Thailand last year.

Yesterday Chandrie, Heather and I had planned out a Christmas brekky at Heidi's, and it ended up including Jeff and Thomas which was good cause we had way too much of everything: french toast, bacon, cinnamon rolls, fruit salad, tangerines, coffee, and grits (courtesy of Jeff, the Texan).

After breakfast I had to make a mad dash over to Costco to grab some rotisserie chickens which were acting as turkey's for our Christmas dinner. Once I got back I started on making the stuffing and potatoes and all other things yummy, while others watched tv and continued to eat, drink and be merry.

Around three Richard and Ashley arrived and we ate some cheese ball and crackers, bacon wrapped chestnuts, bacon wrapped dates (btw mom...not such a hit over here in Korea, I think I actually lost some credibility because of them), some cocktail shrimp and some tempura shrimp.

Then we proceeded on to dinner, which had all the fixings and I proved what a big geek I was by admitting that I had brought gravy mix from home with me, specifically for the purpose of making xmas dinner.

Despite the fact that we were all beyond stuffed and groaning with discomfort we proceeded to eat fudgey, candy cane ice cream cake that I had made the night before. After that we ended up watching Indiana Jones, which is not on my top ten list of favorite movies.

All we could talk about at work today was the amount of food that was consumed yesterday; somehow we managed to cram all of our holiday eating into a 12 hour stretch.

Tonight we went back to Heidi's for leftovers, which was maybe even better than last night cause it wasn't quite as excessive as yesterday's binge.

Anyhow I have two days til I'm on vacation and then I will be off to Bali and hopefully between then and now I'll get some phone calls into people... for now though, I'm off to rest.

Merry Christmas! xox

1 Week until....

Santa Claus comes to town!!!!!!! Actually he arrived last week and I tore into the presents about ten minutes after I got the package... guess if Santa was more on his game he would have realized I should've actually been on the naughty list.... In typical Diana fashion the first thing I did was send mom an email informing her of the "send back" pile.

Christmas day is actually shaping up to be a festive day. We are starting out with a Christmas breakfast, complete with Tim Hortons coffee (courtesy of Grandma and Grandpa), french toast and bacon. Then we are gonna watch Christmas movies and then I'm making dinner for Richard, Ashley, Heather and Chandrie, which I hope to be doing at Heidi's apartment, cause she will be home in Canada, and my apartment doesn't have nearly the room to accomodate everybody.

Going to Seoul this weekend to do some last minute running around and get some essential food items like cranberry sauce, possibly hit up a book store, and try and find a pair of shoes that will fit, my apparently gigantic, non-Korean feet.

Oh and just incase you were wondering how the poker tournament went on Saturday, I sucked. Not really, came 14th out of 28 people, but apparently 14th place doesn't warrant any money. I think I should get money for being the first placed girl...or the only girl for that matter. ANyhow it was a fun day and nice to get a big crew out for it rather than our smallish group of late.

And just in case you're counting 11 days until Bali!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

5 Year Olds Are Gross

I'm sure I don't need to tell people by now that I'm not a huge fan of small children. When it comes to things I don't like I'm probably the least subtle person ever, but my kinder kids never fail to amaze me.

I've become rather desensitized about them wetting themselves, their snotty little noses still bother me to no end, and the fact that they are always trying to touch me with their hands that have been in their mouths, noses, and who knows where else, but I have one kid who never fails to amaze me.

Her name is Hamin and she is the most angelic looking kid you've ever seen. Her mom sends her to school dressed in brand name outfits, including Ralph Lauren hair ties, yet give her half an hour in class and she has glue smeared all over herself, her socks are missing and her pants are falling down. She is also the biggest space cadet I've ever seen and it takes me screaming "HAMIN, HAMIN, HAMIN!" before she even registers that someone is trying to get her attention.

Today we were in the elevator at school with about 20 other five year olds and she crouches down onto the floor and licks the wall of the elevator. I yell at her to get her to stop, she looked at me, and then went back to licking the wall. There were to no words to describe it but aside from being totally grossed out by it, I think it was one of the funniest things I've ever seen and had I had my camera with me it would have made a fantastic video to show you guys what I deal with each day.

16 days til Bali!!!!

and we've got no place to stay! woohoo! (don't worry Beth, I'll get it sorted :) : ) :)

I need a vacation. I'm drained, not because I'm doing anything particularly strenuous, but because my mind knows a vacation is approaching and it is making work harder to bear... either that or I'm fed up with kids peeing on their shoes and stuff like that. On that note, I'd like to congratulate Lisa and Matt on their big news and remind Lisa that she's not allowed to have the baby until I'm home in August. I'm sure it's perfectly natural for some women to carry a baby for 11 months or so...

Big weekend this weekend! Tom is back in town for a few days and we've decided it's our duty to go out and drink our faces off. (classy, I know!) Then on Saturday there is a big poker tournament at Brickhouse and there should be about thirty people in it and it will probably go on most of the afternoon and night. I can't wait! Wish me luck!!!

Ruckus! (well not really...)

In a matter of 48 short hours since my last post I suddenly have all sorts of things to say... I kind of want to pace myself though because as Beth pointed out to me today, I've only had two blogs in the past two weeks. Although technically one day I did change my page to reflect the holiday seasons so that should count for something, especially since nobody even bothered to comment on it. Jerks.

So anyhow, in some exciting news, Beth is coming to Bali with us! Woohoo! (Guess she's showing some of you up who thought it was sufficient enough just to throw a Christmas card in the mail, huh?)

Last night was our Christmas work party and it was pretty crazy. In Korean fashion we went to a galbi restaurant and had Korean BBQ, sat on the floor and everything that we drank was consumed from a shot glass. For some reason, even after doing many, many, many shots of soju and rice wine I could not get drunk. After we left the restaurant we all went on to another bar where we drank many pitchers of beer, and ate fried chicken and ice cream. After that the crew continued on to downtown to spend more of our director's money, I, however, was exhausted and bailed out. Good thing to, cause when I woke up this morning I was not a happy camper, despite not feeling drunk at all last night I certainly had a hangover that was in proportion to the consumption.

Heidi and I had made plans to go ice skating with a teacher from the other Poly school in town, but I was having none of that with the way I felt, so instead we went and had coffee, went to a bookstore where I bought far too many books, and then we came home quickly before heading back out to Costco. Upon getting home I reached into my pocket to grab my keys, which weren't there. Searched my purse, they weren't there. Researched my pockets, researched my purse and started to have flashbacks to last year when I was always locking myself out. Unfortunately, my spare set was hanging on the other side of the door which really didn't help me out at all, so we had to call a key guy who jimmied his way into my apartment. As for the keys, I can only assume that when I was pulling my gloves in and out of my pockets I lost them somewhere in Daejeon.

Finally Heather, Chandrie, Heidi and I were on our way to Costco in search of all things western. Due to none of us being in great condition we decided to stock up on snacks and yummy food, and make a night of lounging around watching tv and being cozy.

So I guess I didn't cause my ruckus, but I honestly don't know how I managed it all the time last year... the thought of doing it once a week is kinda fun and always ends up being fun, but how I managed two or three nights in a row last year is beyond me. I think I'm getting old. :(

F-f-f-f-f--f freezing!

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but I don't think I'm ever gonna be able to stomach another Canadian winter. I was pretty much a baby when it came to winters in Canada before, but after missing three consecutive winters I fear my Canadianess is gone. It is just below zero here and I'm dying. Dying.

In other news, I'm still pretty boring. Maybe even more boring than normal cause I've been hibernating under my blankets a lot lately.

Made it out to poker last night and it was a really fun night. Only six of us showed up but it was a good social group and despite suffering a bad beat at the end of the night that bumped me off the table it was a fun night.

Friday night we are having a staff Christmas party/good-bye party for one of our directors. There are gonna be like forty of us there so it should be interesting to say the least. All the foreigners and Koreans are going which will be the first time we've had a mixed gathering since I've been here. The Korean teachers seem like fun so hopefully it will be a good time.

There are less than 20 days till Christmas now! I have four packages on my floor waiting to go out but it's too cold for me to go out get some mailing tape and boxes so here's hoping that I get them to the post office in time for xmas. I don't know what I'm doing for xmas day yet, we only have the one day off so a few of us girls were thinking about doing stockings and breakfast and Christmas movies in the afternoon. I'm sure there will be some foreigners' thing going on at the local bars but as of yet it is still up in the air...

Anyhow I'm getting bored writing this so I imagine you are pretty bored reading it too... I'll have to cause some ruckus this weekend so I have something to write about!