So most or all of you now have probably stopped reading this, but I have been meaning to do a "wrap up" since I got home.  But you know how things are in the US around Christmas time.  Plus, my brother graduated and my other brother flew in from Oregon, so I haven't been in one place more than four days since I got here (Texas, Oklahoma, Texas, Oklahoma, and now I'm in Texas again).  I leave in two days for Brasil!!!  Which I think I'm more excited to see Lolly than to go to Brasil but of course it'll be nice to just travel and chill out for a bit.

Wow, I have two more days in Korea. Right now, 36 hours. I still have to take my two Korean final exams and pack. So so strange I have no idea how to explain how I'm feeling, and of course it's changing all the time. I've managed to hold back the flood, the only time I cried was one or two tears today when I was leaving church for the last time. I've known that family literally from the third day I arrived in Korea, and I saw them very regularly. This past week I've been really busy having lunch or dinner with friends every day and attending class and writing papers and making presentations and Friday I took two final exams. But I've managed to do it. I feel completely in shock. Yesterday I said goodbye ("see you later") to Jiyeon and Janghee, which was really really difficult. I only saw them, technically, a few times, but Jiyeon always says that she felt something special about me when she met me and I feel the same way. I said I wasn't sad because I know we'll meet again but of course I'm sad because it's hard to leave when you don't know when "again" will be. When I got on the bus and left them standing at the bus stop I felt completely in shock. I went straight from there to meeting Michael and going out again to meet Adrian (who left today, and it already feels empty without him), so I was busy calling and texting, but at first I couldn't place the feeling that I was having. Then I realized... It's the same feeling as getting in a minor car accident. It's so disorienting and you want to cry and feel so shook up even though you know that everything's okay. And you have to keep functioning and get the person's insurance information and call the police but you just want to take a second to rest and cry and think but the situtation requires that you act first, then rest. It also reminds me of yoga class when you're so intent on getting the position and then the leader says "Don't forget to breathe." I'm trying to breathe now but keep moving as fast as possible. I'm ready to go home in terms of getting these goodbyes over with. It's being dragged out for a long time. Tomorrow's my last full day in Korea. I can't believe it. See you all soon. Call me.

Today I had my int'l development class which is pretty boring and has more than 100 students so its easy to blend in (well, maybe not for me in Asia). but anyway my friend Jihae sits behind me, and she's definitely one of the people I'm going to miss the most from here. Before class we talked about how soon I was leaving. During class she texted me saying "kajima" which means "don't go." i think that was the closest i've been to tears yet.

my goodness how time flies. and i can even feel it speeding up for my last little leg here. this weekend, with the exception of this evening, has been spent doing no work and just being in korea. A big group of students went to North Korea this weekend to Mt. Kumgang, a special tourism area there. I still have yet to hear about it but I'll let you know when I do. I decided to opt out because I didn't want my won going to support the North Korean regime. Friday night I just went out with Chris, my neighbor, because we couldn't find anyone else to go with us. We drank a pitcher of beer and ate some squid with peanuts. We revelled in the fact that we were still in Korea and wondered what we would do and think and feel when we had to leave. Koreans have a tradition that they always eat when they drink at a bar (clubs are of course different) so we're always under pressure to order expensive food when we go out. In terms of money I hate it but in terms of food I like it, especially when we order the fruit. Then we heard the rest of the crew was at a club so we went there, but it turned out just to be like 8 Germans. The Germans... I know that it is easy to hang out with people from your own country and people are prone to do so, but I really have never encountered such a cliquish group anywhere else. Of course I do not mean every German and it is not all the time (although most of the time) and maybe it's because there are so many Germans but... there are some Germans that, with the exception of seeing them by themselves, I have never seen them without another German. That's completely insane. Why are you in another country? I think it's sad enough when we hang out with only international students, but it's worse when it's just your own country. I can say as individuals I like most of the Germans but when they get in big groups they only speak German which is so rude if you're the minority there. If they got together and only spoke Korean, which I don't completely understand either, that would be okay, but come on guys! Anyway, from that explanation you can see that we didn't stay long. One thing though is that I saw a friend's friend at the bar so I went and talked to him and his friend came up and met me and said "Oh no you're not Swedish are you?" and I said that I was. Then another friend came up and said "You're Swedish? But you look so Finnish." And I said, "No, no, I'm 100% Swedish." I do that pretty often because I think it's fun and I know I'll never see these people again. I change the country, but I think I've always said I'm from either Scandinavia or (one time) Mexico. I've never been caught and people always say "of course you're Swedish/Danish/Norwegian/Finnish" except last night I told a German (not from the Ewha group) that I was Swedish and I think he spoke Swedish so that kinda ruined it but luckily it was really loud so neither of us could be sure. The point is, Friday my roommate said that she didn't want to go out because she had to get up early on Saturday. So I got back past 2am and got up again at 9am and when I left at 10 she was still asleep. I went to Namdaemun market (again) with Peter and Chris. We had the most delicious food in Korea (which I was already craving more of today) and then shopped so much. I got a lot of Christmas shopping done, though. We also went to Kyobo books which was so ridiculously full of people. One thing I appreciate about Korea is how Christmas isn't overdone. I guess it's because only 25% of Korea is Christian but it's so nice not to have Christmas shoved in my face. Maybe I won't be tired of it by the time it rolls around this year. Later I went to tea and a movie (at the same time) with my Korean friend and then I went out with Lea and Adrian to a bar that lets foreigners drink for free (have I already mentioned that?). It died immediately when the free drinks did so we went to Ska2 across the street. Wait a second is this a replay of the Saturday before minus Colin? I think so. Basically, we danced until we almost died and we met the loveliest little Korean girls who danced all night with us too and don't speak much English which is perfect to practice my Korean. My legs were sore and my ears were ringing this morning when I got up at 9:30 to go to church. The service was even more painful than usual but I managed to stay awake. I made a resolution that this would be my last Sunday but because I hadn't warned them previously I felt bad and so I said I'll come next week. I think it's okay. I feel a lot more comfortable about my Korean language finals. So I leave in 9 days and the only thing between here and there is 2 final papers one presentation four exams buying even more christmas presents going out to dinner with my korean language class my peace buddy's birthday saying goodbye to the international students and saying goodbye to my lovely Korean friends... this time in Ecuador I was in Canoa and it was completely stress free my calendar is turned to december and now i can stare at the day when i leave. how is it so soon? this wednesday will be my last wednesday in korea. any last requests, now is the time.

I don't really have anything to write, just that I have two more weeks only left here and I don't know how to feel or how to react. I talked to Paul this morning on skype and that was good. I got a haircut this evening with the help of my friend for the equivalent of $6 then she treated me to a delicious spicy dinner. Since then I've been trying to study and pretend like I'm not sick. My roommate's driving me crazy. For more than three hours straight she's been either watching a tv show on her computer without headphones or she's been talking on the phone. and it's too cold and i'm too close to being sick to go to a study room. it's really cold here. with two weeks to go it's a strange time to be reminiscent about other places but i've found myself lately having really strong memories of specific not so important events, like having almuerzo with my ecuadorian mom and sister in ecuador, driving at night at that bend in the road on 2673 right before GVTC, and walking home from school in Dalhart. maybe i am really sick. i feel like my brain's all muddled but these memories are so crystal clear. i'm trying to stay in this moment though while it lasts. when i was in ecuador i imagined myself speaking spanish here in korea but now sometimes when i remember things that happened in ecuador i imagine myself speaking korean. sometimes i think of things that will happen in the future like they're memories, like me sitting in my closet at canyon lake and looking at my scheduler that i am using this semester.

Well hello there. Long time no see. Was the last time I blogged really Halloween? I'm heading home in about two weeks. That is so so so insane to me. I knew it would fly by but I mean really this is ridiculous. I feel like I just visited here instead of studied here. Colin (my brother) arrived last Saturday evening. All last week I had worked really hard to finish as much homework as possible before he got here so I would have some free time to see him while he was here. I have so much class so I knew it would be difficult to work things out as it was and try to attend a reasonable amount of class. I went out Friday night because I thought that I wouldn't be able to go out on Saturday but I was mistaken. Colin's flight arrived at 9 and then we headed back to Ewha and then back out again. I met him at the airport with some squid jerky, which is really normal here and I've gotten used to but he thought was terrible. So we went out to eat and he had some bibimbap and I had some jjigae. We went to Tinpan, a club in Hongdae because most of the crew was already there. I had never been to that club before and it was so packed you could hardly breathe. We danced for a long time and got trampled on and the bar played terrible songs like Will Smith. We knew that when they played "baby got back" the second time it was our cue to leave. Colin got up way to early on Sunday morning to head out. Let me take time out here to explain that it's been ridiculously freaking cold here. I think Sunday was one of the coldest days so far, and it was really windy. We had kimbap and coffee for breakfast at Ewha. After breakfast we headed into downtown Seoul, but between walking from the bus to the main intersection we were approached by some Koreans who asked if we would be extras in their film- it would only take about 15 minutes. So we did it, and it was so random. We saw the main intersection and had a look inside the largest bookstore in Korea, Kyobo books. We went to the Seoul riverwalk and they were having a tangerine festival so they gave us free tangerines. After that we went to InsaDong, which is like a traditional street in the middle of Seoul. We walked around for a while and looked in shops and stuff. There were a group of ppl in traditional clothes playing traditional music and a man with a huge hammer smashing some kind of rice or something to make rice cakes. It was nice but freaking cold. We had lunch in the early afternoon in this back alley which was basically some grandma's kitchen. We sat on the floor and I unwittingly ordered the spiciest thing I've ever eaten in Korea, maybe in my life. Colin used one spoonful of it to flavor his entire bowl. It was really strange to have freezing hands and my face sweating. We decided it was time to go somewhere that was inside, and the only place I could think of was the huge Coex mall so we headed that way. We walked around in the insanity that was Coex, filled with people, and then sat down for some coffee. I thought Colin was gonna die/fall asleep with the rest of the Koreans, so we headed back to Ewha. We had an early night, which goes without saying. Monday I had class in the morning so Colin with with Linda to Gyeongbukgung, the largest palace in Seoul. He said he really liked it and had a lot of fun. They were back in the afternoon to meet me for lunch. I had English tutoring and then class in the afternoon so Colin just hung out and took a nap and did homework. After class we just walked around Ewha and had tea. We met 6 or 7 ppl later for all you can eat Korean bbq. I got to eat for free since all I ate was like lettuce and grilled garlic. We ate for a long time, and when we left the restaurant, it was snowing! I told you it was really cold here. We went to a noraebang and sang karaoke. I got 100 points singing 'zombie' by the cranberries. Tuesday morning Colin went to Bongeun-sa temple in Seoul and then we met with Josephine for all you can eat sushi. In the afternoon I had lots of class but the jet lag was really catching up with Colin so he just hang around the dorm and did homework. Watching Colin's jetlag was painful and it made me glad that no one was around to blog about my sleep schedule when I first arrived here. We didn't do anything Tuesday evening because Colin was catching up on his sleep and me on my homework. Wednesday Colin had to get up early (and so did I to walk him to the meeting place) to go to a DMZ tour. I met him after class and we set off on an epic adventure. First we went to Namsan tour and walked up the mountain in the freezing cold. We took the tower up and it was such a clear and beautiful night. We headed back and walked through Myeong-dong, then got lost trying to find Namdaemun, which we did eventually, and we ate kalgooksu and mandu. But it wasn't nearly as delicious as it should have been. By that time I was beginning to freeze to death so we headed back. Thursday Colin slept in while I went to class- jerk. In the afternoon I skipped Econ class, even though I was really sad to miss it. (not) We kicked Seoul's ass again. We went to Changdeokgung, which is supposed to be the coolest palace in Seoul (there are five of them), but for some reason on Thursdays they charge you 15000 won for entrance as opposed to the normal 3000 won entrance. There was on American guy who was literally FREAKING OUT and he screamed at the manager 'why why' and the manager said, with an appropriate korean accent 'thursday is special day.' the american said 'thursday's not a special day.' But oh it was. So colin and I opted to skip Changdeokgung for that day and we went to the Jongmyo, the ancestral shrine next door, instead. It was only 1000 won entrance and there were more old Korean men congregated outside than I have ever seen in my life. I still have no idea why. Maybe Thursday's a special day. Jongmyo was connected to another palace, Changgyeonggung, so we got a double whammy for only 1000 won. We also did high kicks by the pond. It was a much better deal. We wandered around another area where I thought there was a Confucist academy but we couldn't find it so we just made fun of this Korean guy on the most tripped out motorcycle I have ever seen with a rubber snake tied to the front. Then we walked a ways to Dongdaemun market, where we tried to bargain down the price on a fluffy alligator hat, but the salesman wasn't havin it. Colin made me remember how I saw this country when I first got here. He would laugh and wonder about things that I see as normal now. He says it's like a whole Disneyland, and he's so right. It made me really appreciate this place again like I did when I first got here. That evening we met with Misook in InsaDong and ate the MOST delicious tofu. We went to a tofu making factory and it was fresh tofu. It actually had some taste. Afterwards Misook took us for tea at a traditional old house in the same area. She took off work to meet us. She is so kind and amazing. She took such a long commute from where she lives just to be hospitable to Colin in his trip here. Thursday was also Thanksgiving day, which is so weird. It didn't feel like it at all. That night we called Dad and Vanessa and Mom and Jerry and they were cooking Thanksgiving food and stuff like that. I could smell the pumpkin pie, but I couldn't eat it. I really miss that holiday. What's a better holiday than sleeping in, stuffing yourself with delicious food, and watching football? On Friday Colin slept in again and then went to my 12:30 class with me who had a guest lecturer talking about German reunification. Her English left something to be desired, with her principal question being, "Who is the subject of this process?" But it was a good example to Colin of what we have to put up with here. We had coffee with some friends afterwards then headed to Changdeokgung. On the way to the subway, we were walking up the hill (like always at Ewha- I swear no matter which direction you go it's uphill) and we heard some screaming and could see girls running from every direction to a central point in front of the student union so there was some kind of famous someone on campus. It made me reminisce about the nonchalance of fame for Los Angeleans. You just don't freak out when you see a famous person. It's weird to do so. We arrived 15 minutes late for the last English tour at Changdeokgung so they said we couldn't go on it and they put us on the last Korean tour instead. We were cursed to see Changdeokgung. It was pretty cool but it started pouring down rain during the last half of the tour so I couldn't hear anything. Thank goodness we had taken Pader's offer of her umbrella or we would have been completely miserable. Colin was hungry when we got back from Ewha so we looked for some omurice and were getting completely soaked and freezing. Then i saw a broken umbrella on the ground and used it until we decided on a restaurant that didn't have omurice but Korean bbq instead. It was really good and cheap, like most Korean restaurants. After dinner I had to take a nap before going out or I didn't think I could make it. We met some folks at Moo bar in Sinchon and then went to Club DGDB in Hongdae which is really hard to find but was pretty fun. It was just the right amount of people. We danced until pretty late and then headed back. We didn't get up Saturday until noon and then we decided to go to Namdaemun and get some gifts for people. We shopped all afternoon and dug the insane busy Namdaemun scene and had the most delicious meal in all Korea. I love that place. We got some pretty good steals I think. It was good for Colin to take some of the gifts home with him so I don't have to pack all that stuff. We headed back to Ewha to drop off our stuff and then met Matti for coffee. We headed back to Insadong one last time to look for a teapot for Colin's girlfriend, then we went back out to Hongdae, to Boom Bar then to forever on the street looking for another bar and then to Ska2, which I really liked, then back to Tinpan which was to busy, then down the street to see if DGDB was open (it wasn't), then back to Ska2, where we stayed until past 4:30 am. Me and Colin went out for breakfast (omurice and chamchi jjigae) and then back to the dorm where he packed while I cut up an Asian pear. He took a shower and we left here at about 6:45. I just took him to the bus stop and watched him get on the bus and he was gone as soon as he got here. It was really strange because I guess that him leaving Sunday morning made us think that we would feel that extra day here but we didn't at all. Saturday afternoon until Sunday morning was just like one day. It's really strange to have family visit me when I'm in a place for a long time and then leave and have me stay here, even though I won't be here much longer. It was really good to have Colin here and as much as I like it here I think I'll be glad to have this semester over (if not my Korea experience, at least this school semester). I hope to catch up on my blog from the week before Colin came, although it may never be done.

Hello everyone... I've been really busy with schoolwork again so I haven't written in a while. I was a little sad about being outside the US for Halloween time but I had so much fun here that I was actually glad I was here in the end. My only disappointment was lack of mass participation, but there were enough international students and the Koreans that hang out with us got into it a bit. On Halloween day there was a party by Yonsei (the university across the street) by their international group. It was a Wednesday but we had to go, of course, cause it was Halloween. I felt lame but I dressed up as a cat out of desperation/I hadn't yet been able to find essential materials for the costume I was anticipating. But it was fun to draw whiskers on my face. We didn't stay out all night but pretty late and it was fun to meet people from Yonsei and be around boys for a while. Boys outnumbering girls during my time in Korea are very rare instances. We saw a guy wearing a poncho and Linda thought that he was from Ecuador or Peru and I said he was probably from the US. I asked if he spoke Spanish and he said "Pocito" and then talked to us in very elementary Spanish. He turned out to be from California. It was pretty funny. It felt nice to dance but the music was pretty bad after the first hour or so. It was all the same but not in a good way. Friday was really great too. I found the most important part of my costume- a pink wig! I also bought a skirt, the first clothing item I've bought in Korea. I hate how you can't try on clothes here (most of the time). I asked the woman if she thought it would fit and she looked at my hips, looked at me and shook her head. She asked if I was usually a size "L". Jerk. So I thought it looked big enough and bought it anyway and it did fit. So there. For those of you who don't know, I was Charlotte (Scarlett Johanson's character) in Lost in Translation. I don't think a single person asked who I was, they just assumed that my costume was wearing a pink wig. At one point, I left the party by myself to pick up some friends from the subway station. I felt strange walking around Seoul by myself with the pink wig, but nobody even looked twice at me. It made me really love Korea. Oh the magic of the pink wig... I have found Korean men to be incredibly passive, especially after so much time in Latin America. The Korean woman may be the single most beautiful group of women that I have ever seen and the Korean men don't even bat an eye, let alone at big not-cute Western women. The pink wig cast some kind of strange spell on the Korean men that made me more approchable or... I have no idea what the deal was. Anyway, a few times during the night I had a troop of young Korean men with me and I was asked for my phone number multiple times- the first time that has happened at all since I have been in Korea. So strange. Friday night was a party that our Ewha Buddies put on. I got second place in the drinking contest, winning me $40 in gift certificates and two free beers. $20 in gift certificates is to a burger place... perfect for vegetarians. The party ended at midnight so most of us headed for another bar, Mike's Cabin. I've been there a few times but I don't know if I've mentioned it by name before. We danced and danced all night. I didn't get home until four. Saturday I got up at 10 to meet the girl I tutor for English, Seong-hyeon. She wanted to take me to Namdaemun market. We had lunch at this narrow 'food alley' where the food is cheap and so delicious and you have to eat fast because there are always people waiting. Then we went to the market but I was too overwhelmed to buy anything, although I did get a thick winter blanket because it's gotten so cold here now. In the afternoon I came home and had a date with one of the guys I met on Friday. Weird, huh? I guess it was a good experience but it was a little strange. Korean girls always date Western men here but it's rarely the other way around, and I always felt like people were looking at us. Plus I feel weird that he has to speak English and stupid that I can't speak Korean. It also seems a bit pointless since I'm leaving in a month (so soon!). Sunday at noon I met Misook, who is my nephew Parker's godmother. She is so nice and I really had a lot of fun. I think we have a bit of an awkward age gap (she's in her early 30s) but we found things to talk about and she is so kind. We first went to Insa-dong, which is like a old traditional street. I went there with Nuri on one of my first days here but hadn't been back since. We had bibimbap (surprise) and then went to this amazing amazing old restaurant that looks like a palace north and up from Seoul for tea. Korea is getting really beautiful now that it's fall- all the leaves are changing colors. So it was really a spectacular view. The weather has been a bit chilly but so perfect in the afternoon and the skies have almost been completely completely blue. After that we went to Itaewon, which is the foreigner's area in Seoul, to buy jeans for Misook. We walked around a bit and had Chinese food for dinner. I was so full and happy when she took me home. She really chauffered me around the city and paid for everything, as Koreans always do. Literally, I don't think I've been out with a Korean and paid for anything, ever. Of course it's great and I like it but it does make me feel uncomfortable sometimes. I don't feel as free to ask people to do things because I know they will pay and I feel like I am taking advantage of them. I think I would ask people to do things more often if I didn't feel bad for them having to pay for everything that I would suggest doing. Yesterday I went out with Josephine, the editor of the Ewha Voice, and Keith, another international student, for all you can eat sushi (only $10). It was so delicious and I definitely ate too much. Josephine is the most different Korean girl I know. She is obviously very intelligent, active, and busy, but she doesn't stress like the other ones do. She also doesn't dress up as much as they do, although she always looks nice and professional. I really like her, she seems really low-maintenance. Anyway, the Ewha Voice came out this month with my article in it about international adoptions. http://evoice.ewha.ac.kr/ is the website if you want to read it. It's under International news. My next article, about Korean language class, is already due next week. Time is flying here. The Ewha Voice is also having their annual party on Friday, which I'm really excited about. I really am so glad that I joined this club here. That's how Koreans do it, they are members of something and that before anything else. All the girls know me and I know (most of) the girls. I am in a group project in one class and all of the Korean girls are from Ewha Voice. I'm really happy that they 'adopted' me like they have. Okay I think that's everything. I'm busy, have a paper do on Monday (the aforementioned group project) but I wanted to write so that I wouldn't have to write about two weeks next time.

So I said I would write more about the girl I met in the airport in Bangkok. I was wandering around looking for a place where I could lay down for a few hours, and I found another girl who said that she was doing the same. She asked if I was alone and said she was too. So we stuck together to look for the couches. She was also on the flight from Seoul to Bangkok but she was going on to Nepal. She was Tibetan, only 24 years old. She had a husband and one year old son. Her son lived in Nepal with her parents. She said life wasn't good for him in Korea. She worked in Korea making jeans. I asked her how the job was and she said it was so difficult. She and her husband both worked, on average, 16 or 17 hours a day. The owners say that you don't have to work overtime but they know they will be fired if they do not. I asked how much she was paid and she told me that it wasn't much and most of it went to the baby. She was going back to Nepal for good because she missed her son. Her husband was staying in Korea. She showed me pictures of her baby boy and her husband. There was one picture of workers, all Nepalese, standing outside a run-down factory. The neighborhood didn't even look like Korea to me. It looked so poor and regressive. It was so strange to meet a person who worked in, essentially, a sweatshop. I am a member of United Students Against Sweatshops at Pitzer and it was exactly the conditions we talk about. I couldn't believe they actually exist and are so young and work so hard for nothing. It was so different to talk to her than to hear about her. Otherwise, it would just have been another story. She was trilingual. In North Korean class yesterday one of the students presented about Kaesung, a special economic zone in North Korea where South Korea has factories and can use cheap North Korean labor. She said that the conditions for workers were really nice in Kaesung, and they only worked 48 hours a week. I wanted to ask why this "terrible country" had better working conditions than that of "developed" South Korea. We finally found the couches and took turns watching each other's bags as we each went to the restroom, and during the short night we would wake up and ask each other what time it was. Her flight was three hours after mine in the morning, so when I left she was still asleep and I didn't get to say goodbye. I think I will always remember her and I feel really emotional writing this. She reminded me why I have tried so hard to buy fair trade clothes and change this uncontrollable consumerist culture we live in.

My professor here at Ewha in my Intro to Int'l Development class will be speaking at CMC (specific location unsure). Her name is Eun Mee Kim, and she will be speaking Nov. 1st (Thurs) at 8pm. Her talk is something like "South Korea Culture Goes Global," but she wasn't sure when I asked her. I hope that you can make it. Talk to her and tell her you know me! Her English is really great and she's very interesting. Let me know if you go!

Wow, what a trip. It was so so amazing. I really miss Thailand. I can't believe I was there yesterday. Literally, about 24 hours ago I was saying goodbye to Uncle Robert, Watcharee, Jack and Jim in the Chiang Mai airport. I can't believe I'm still awake. I left Seoul Tuesday evening and spent the night in the Bangkok airport. I met a girl who I'll write a whole other blog about later and we slept close to each other on airport couches and watched each other's bags. Lindsay picked me up from the Chiang Mai airport on Wednesday morning. She's my Pitzer friend who's studying at Payap there. It was such a trip to see her and so surreal, then so normal. We talked and talked and walked around Payap. That was weird too since I had originally applied to go there and had thought about it so much before I was transfered to Korea. We were walking around and ran into Jeff who also goes to Pitzer, so it was also weird to just be walkin' around Thailand and see people I know. I mean, I guess it wasn't that random... I might be getting ahead of myself, but I of course really loved Thailand and kinda wished I had been able to study there, although the Payap program seems to have a lot of problems. One thing that I like better here is the international students. We are over 150 and the majority are not American, while Payap has 40ish and they're almost all American. I do wish that we had Korean roommates, though. So I was only able to see Lindsay for a bit cause she had class. My uncle and his wife Watcharee and her two twin 12 year old boys Jack and Jim came and picked me up. It was soo exciting to meet them. I am the first in my family to meet them or even to see them (we haven't had pictures yet- ps if you want to skip ahead the link at the bottom is an album of basically them). We went into Chiang Mai and bought a durian fruit (more later) then had rice porridge lunch. The boys were so shy at first, as I think I was too, as I obviously don't speak Thai and they don't speak English. But Robert and I talked and talked pretty much for the entire past week, so that was really great. I've always loved talking to him. We talked a lot about when things had happened in the past (like when we had last seen each other, when Christian broke his ankle, wrist, elbow, etc...), Thai culture, Korean culture, Indian culture, Ecuadorian culture. Language. Thai and Korean have similar numbers. The Korean numbers (at least one set) comes from Chinese, so I'm assuming Thai does too. The point is we had a 3 hour drive from Chiang Mai to Ban Tak (not to be confused with Bangkok) where URob and the fam lives. It's not a little town, it's more like Canyon Lake. Just spread out homes. He even lives across the street from a river. The house is two story with a kitchen in the front, then a living room/dining room/boys' room, then URob/Watcharee's room, then a utility room(?) and bathroom in the back. The second story, where I never went, is Watcharee's parent's room. Yaai, the grandma, always wanted to talk to me and was frustrated that I couldn't speak Thai, even after four whole days of being in Thailand. The dad just ignored me and everyone else as well, as everyone just kinda ignored him. It seemed to work out well. We had dinner out at an all you can eat/cook for yourself place and I ate so many delicious vegetables. It made me very happy. Fresh food is so expensive in Korea so I ate enough in Thailand to make up for the past couple months of depravity. We had durian later, which is a huge huge huge rich fruit with a terrible strong smell that you either love or hate. Well, I guess not cause I feel pretty ambivalent. URob and Watcharee really like it and Yaai loves it. I felt like I was eating garlic because of the strong smell, which affects you in the same way as garlic. Great news for me was that they have freaking ORITOS in Thailand. (the baby bananas in Ecuador) Who knew? I ate about 38972 when I was there. On the drive back we stopped at the largest dam in Thailand (in Asia?) and then went to a petrified tree which was absolutely huge. The next day we went to Sukothai, which is like the Gyeongju of Thailand, the ancient capital. We saw a cute parade on the way there. Sukothai had some sweet Buddha statues and chedis, which are like relic dispensaries. The boys really liked it and we ran around and took pictures forever. It was fun and I felt like I was doing better at connecting with the boys, which was really important to me. I know I keep talking about food, but I have to say that I was really disappointed that it was not mango season. It was, however, mushroom season! I had copious amounts of delicious mushrooms made by the famous chef Watcharee. The next day was a trip to Mae Sot and the border of Thailand and Myanmar. I have become so interested in Myanmar and the situation there. We went through a lot of windy mountain roads and saw so much lettuce being harvested by the "mountain people" (mainly Karen). In Mae Sot we had delicious fried noodles and fish (I know, talking about food again) then went to the market. (Oh no more food) There we bought 2 kilos of cashews for pretty durn cheap that I have now in my room in Korea. I have never eaten as many cashews in my life as I have eaten today. Watcharee wanted to get me a beautiful Thai cloth (we think it's silk, not sure what the Thai word is) with an Asian print. After that we tried to get out of Mae Sot but no one was familiar with the town so we drove straight through another market, which was okay to do but very difficult. We were laughing so much and everyone was talking to us and laughing at us too. It was so great, better than a Disney ride. Back on the road we stopped at a hilltribe market and bought some candied pork. They had pomegrantates which were more yellow than red and just weren't as delicious as California pomegranates. We got home and watched a terrible vampire movie that the boys had bought at the market. It was dubbed in Thai so it was bearable. The next day I went on my first motorcycle ride ever! (I wore a helmet, Mom). All the Thais do it. (did you know they drive on the left side of the road in Thailand?) Me and URob went to the local market and talked to one of the vendors a bit and looked around, although it wasn't quite hoppin' yet. We took the car with Watcharee to a local wat, which is a Buddhist temple. They are sooo gaudy- totally campy, Liv! They have a little case there filled with sticks with different numbers on them and you shake them until one stick falls out, then you get a piece of paper with that number on it and it tells you your fortune. I did it and half the sticks fell out. I was really embarrassed/couldn't stop laughing. One of the women told me it was "lots of good luck." Across the street was a chedi (which I kept thinking was a Chewy because I knew it was something from Star Wars that started with a 'ch') where people go to get their lottery numbers. There was a battle fought between Burma and Thailand a long time ago there. Then we visited the wat where Yaai spends the night sometimes. This was the real deal. Only two monks live there and it's more out in the woods without any TV or anything. We talked to one of the monks. He said that monks usually become monks when they're 20 years old and that the cat is fat because it just got a shot. They were soo nice. We went back to get the boys who were just finishing dinner and ready to eat second dinner. We had some whole fried fish that kinda freaked me out and everyone could tell. Watcharee cut it up for me. After dinner there was a party at the wat which I HAD to see, so we went. We called it the Monk Dance. The boys played a dart pop the balloon game and won some q-tips. It was like a county fair in a small town. There were some fat women who did traditional Thai dance. The monks didn't dance at all, to our disappointment. The next day was my last day, Sunday. I know- already?? I can't believe that it was yesterday. It feels like I've been back for a long time and that I was gone for a month. We got up early to go to the elephant conservatory. We saw an elephant show and fed them bananas and then went elephant riding, which seems to be popular with everyone studying abroad in Asia. It was just really bumpy but luckily since it was at the conservatory it didn't seem like the elephants were being abused which I heard was a concern sometimes. Elephants are really cute and seemed friendly. After this adventure we headed back into Chiang Mai and went to Doi Suthep, which is a big famous and busy wat. It was good to feel the temple life and hang out, even though there were tons of foreigners there. By this point me and the boys were able to communicate pretty well and all five of us were laughing so much all the time. Watcharee is so funny and has such an easy and catching laugh. The boys were itching to eat at McDonald's so we headed back to do that. I couldn't do it after reading Fast Food Nation. Everyone should read that book, btw. Ronald McDonald gave us the ol' sawadii. We left there and everyone went and watched me eat a falafel instead. It was so much more delicious than a Big Mac, just for the record. Lindsay was supposed to meet up with me but she wasn't getting back from her trip until 7:30 which was when I had to head towards the airport (sad day girl, I'll see you in a few months). So the fam decided to spend the night in Chiang Mai and see me off to the airport. We went to the night market and saw the last amazing chedi, a really old one that wasn't so campy and shiny. It was so beautiful by night and made me feel even sadder about leaving Thailand. The night market was so great and I got my last cheap fresh fruit in the form of a huge smoothie for $.50. They took me to the airport- Watcharee and Jackjim's first time to ever go in one. It was really sad to say goodbye, especially because I have no idea when I'll see them again. Nothing so special after that. I flew to Bangkok, had a stressful transfer that involved the Thais throwing away my too large tube of toothpaste, then a short overnight flight to Seoul. I essentially slept two hours last night. I really don't understand how I'm still awake. I made it through customs too easy in Korea and jumped on a bus. I was still late for class at 8:30, but only by 45 minutes. I did my homework between class and then edited my newspaper article for the EV. Thanks to Uncle Robert, Watcharee, and JackJim for such a wonderful time in Thailand. I hope to see you all so so soon. http://claremont.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2056010&l=270ca&id=13305994