1/8 I’m on my way to the airport to fly out to the Philippines and I remembered that I hadn’t packed my passport. Dumb! Holy Crap. So what happened was that I was talking with Lisa on Skype until 1240 and I still needed to pack even though I had to leave the house by 1300. So we finished talking, I packed real quick, and then I left. I get on the subway, which was much easier than last time (because I knew what I was doing and because I am much closer to the airport than school is) and then I realize that I forgot my passport. So dumb. So I had to take a taxi to my house, pick it up, and then take a taxi to the airport because I was already really ... read more

1/6 It’s a little comical to me that the person that I am closest with and talk to the most in my homestay family is the driver, well, one of the drivers. He and I talk about girls, plans for the future, girls, and, oh yeah, I can’t forget, girls. :) He loves girls. He’s married and has a little girl, but that’s all that he talks about. Anyway, what we talked about last night was a little more serious than it usually is. We talked about internal politics in China, for example why certain people are allowed to do various activities whereas the rest of the population is barred from doing those same activities. He said the reason is entirely because of money. I knew this, but maybe you don’t, but Chinese citizens are not ... read more

1/04 Holy Crap life sucks it’s so cold here! The weather is about -15C and with the wind chill, that’s about -23C is what the weather report said. No matter how much I wear, I’m still shivering outside; wearing gloves is not just something you should do, you need to because the wind hurts your skin so bad. Wow, this is terrible! I can’t wait to go to the Philippines where the weather is so nice. My family told me that I need to bring a swimsuit; A SWIMSUIT!!! I don’t even know what that means anymore. There is this vague memory in the back of my mind when I was back in San Diego where I would wear sandals a lot, but I think it was just a dream. Now I have to wear BOOTS ... read more

12/31 The bureaucracy in China is so annoying to deal with. My bus pass broke somehow, so I can’t use public transportation at the moment which is a must since I live far away and it’s expensive to get to and from home via taxi. So the lady on the bus this morning tells me where to go to fix my card, and I discover that it’s right behind one of the bus stops by my school; “WOW!” I wonder to myself, “how conveniently located and it’ll be so easy to get this fixed!!!” Boy was I naïve. After living here for half a year now, you would have thought that I would have been smarter than that! Nothing in China is easy. I walk up to the window to fix my card, and they say ... read more

12/28 Today I picked up some of my suit materials that I bought last week before going to Korea. I bought two suits and two shirts, both handmade and tailored to me, for about $100 per suit and about $10 per shirt. Awesome right? I also bought one of those winter coats that you would wear with your suits so when I get all my stuff together, I’m going to look damn sexy! ;) I’m excited to finally be able to wear it all. I tried on the suits not 100% finished yet a couple days ago in order to make sure they got all the measurements right, and the suits looked decent, but not superb so I was really disappointed. But when I got there and tried on the completed suits today, wow was I ... read more

12/26 Dude!!! I just finished the tour of the DMZ and it was awesome! I know, I wasn’t supposed to go, but staying in the hostel we talked to some people and they went on a different tour and they didn’t encounter any construction, plus it was cheaper. So we went and it was awesome. Seriously, there’s a lot of history here and tensions are still very high with many issues yet to be resolved, so I got to live history! :) I’m such a nerd, I know, but still, I sure enjoyed it. Anyway, the first thing we did was crawl own one of the four discovered tunnels that North Korea (henceforth to be called NK) dug in an attempt to attack Seoul, South Korea (henceforth called SK). It was a long, very steep walk ... read more

12/24 Christmas Eve. We got up pretty early today because Susan needed to get her visa, the whole reason why she is in Korea; we got it, but because she was still feeling so crappy, we returned to the hostel and took ridiculously long naps. I used facebook for the first time in five months, got in contact with people I haven’t been able to talk to since getting to China, and caught up on the news. After 4 ½ hours when they finally woke up, we got some fantastic Korean BBQ, saw some interesting performances (dancing, dating shows, concerts) while walking around the streets of Seoul, walked by this quaint, very pretty stream with couples and Christmas lights, eventually arriving at this massive Christmas tree and at some Silk Worms. We also went to see ... read more

12/23 I’m so excited. I’m going to another country and I’m going to see Lisa; it just hasn’t been the same since she left. She left Sunday morning but I feel like she’s been gone for forever already. Anyway, I wanted to talk about what I’m expecting/what I’ve heard about Korea: First, I’m sitting here at the terminal looking around at the mostly Korean people, suspiciously looking at their eyes expecting to be stared at, like in China where everyone stares at foreigners, and not one person have I caught looking at me! Nothing! I haven’t even caught anyone casually looking at me, for that matter. Susan and Lisa called me last night and Susan was telling me a couple of her first experiences. She loves it! She said it’s cleaner, the people are more polite/nicer, ... read more