the luckiest girl in ilsan.

last thursday, i became the most envied person in the entire greater area of ilsan. why? costco made it's grand opening and it just happens to be RIGHT across the street from me. there are 4 costcos in korea, and one of them happens to be just a skip and a hop away from me. i cannot tell you how fantastic this is as a foreigner. i have been making trips an hour and a half away to costco every couple of weeks just to get the american products i love and miss. boneless skinless chicken breast, frozen blueberries, 100% cranberry grape juice, organic peanut butter, chicken broth, pesto, gaucamole...mmmmmmm!!!!!! the list goes ON and ON!!!! and as of last thursday, i will never have to break my back getting my costco groceries into the taxi, onto the bus, and the 5 block walk home. i love convenience!!!! i also saw the most hated little korean boy from tango pango shopping with his parents. i spotted him and he smiled and turned all red (or red-ish brown b/c when your skin is brown it doesn't really get red), and i ran up to him sitting in his parents' shopping cart and hugged him and he was just so cute! joey is his name and every day we tell the administration "oh please oh please oh please kick joey out!!!!" the boy has hate in his eyes. evil in his heart. so i thought. but when i saw him tonight amidst big bags of rice and boxes of strange korean cereal that is green, so excited and embarrassed to see me, i just couldn't stop hugging him and trying to tell him how cute he looked in that grocery cart and if he was excited for school tomorrow and forgetting that he doesn't actually speak more than "hello" and "see you next time." so i decided that maybe he hates b/c he knows we hate him. so i am going to try to love joey this week.

and just as a side note, what kind of parents take their kid grocery shopping at 10 pm on a school night? or any night for that matter? korean parents. that's who. you wouldn't BELIEVE the amount of kids that are running around in my courtyard at 11 pm every night. kids that would be in bed by 7:30 in america. atleast it's comforting to know that when my kids are falling asleep in my class it's not b/c i'm boring.

i had a really wonderful weekend. debbie came back from her month long stay in america, and it's so nice having her back. we went for vietnamese food friday night and then met up with amelia after she was done with her yoga classes and saw the late showing of sweeny todd the demon barber of fleet street. (and i mean late--started at 11:45 pm) the acting was great and i couldn't believe this was johnny depp's first musical. he was fabulous. what i found not so fabulous was all the throat slicing. i mean what do you expect when the title has 'demon barber' in it, i know, but it was just a little much for me. i don't do well with blood. even when it's bright red and fake looking. saturday i got accupuncture again, which went better this week. last week i felt really terrible afterwards and the entire week, but apparently that can happen after you do acupuncture for the first time. it's getting rid of all the bad in your body, and re-arranging all your body's energy, and that can take a lot out of you. oh, and today, i started my private yoga classes with amelia! she taught me about ashtanga yoga and then we did the entire standing sequence together. we were by big open windows and it was so quiet and the sun was going down, and i just felt very happy. then we went to a cafe and we spent some time going through the english grammar book that she's learning, and enjoyed our tea and coffee and it was just a really nice afternoon to end my week. i feel grateful that i've found some people here that i am getting close with. it takes a long time to get comfortable with people and really get to know them, but i feel like i am gaining a support system here, and it makes this place feel more like home. it's good to love and be loved. :)

i go to china in 9 days!!! i feel like i am barely back to a normal pace since being in the philippines. i think after china, i am going to take a couple months off from traveling. which is a convenient decision since i don't have any breaks after my trip to china until may...:)