Yesterday, I did the unexpected, the unthinkable, the unpossible. I told my boss that I decided to stay at Elite. !!! I actually feel a lil stupid about telling the whole world for the past several months that I was ready to leave this "hellhole." But Tuesday night, on my way home, everything just hit me like a ton of bricks. It really ain't so bad. For several hours, I found myself wrestling and trying to think of reasons to stay rather than to leave. I think that was a clear indicator of where my heart was. Anyways, I told my boss as soon as I came in to work, and everyone was thrilled. My boss hugged me twice. Haha. It's just like those tv shows where main characters decide to leave but end up coming back to everyone. The Lord works in mysterious ways.

Thought of the Day: did u wake up?
Song of the Day: Snow Patrol-You're All I Have

I was having dinner with my co-teachers tonight, and there were a couple of girls sitting next to us. Our white teacher, Mike, kept mentioning how the girl behind Kathy looked pretty cute. After that, Kathy and I had a 10 minute conversation about whether or not we should ask her for her number for Michael. Michael was totally opposed to it, but I finally got up out of my seat, told her in my imperfect Korean that my foreign friend thought she was pretty, and asked if she was interested in meeting him some time. She started laughing and asked me if I was joking. I told her I was totally serious. One minute later, Michael Catinari scored some digits. The best part was talking about Swingers on our way home and referring Michael to Mikey and me to Trent. It made me so happy to be able to joke about "being so money" with my American teachers. What an exciting night!

Thought of the Day: To leave or not to leave.
Song of the Day: Chloe Burgess-World Of Colour

In case you're wondering, the date went pretty well.

Aren't you dying to know more?

I'm almost done with The Holiness of God. Pretty darn good. Unfortunately, I dropped my Chronicles of Narnia into my toilet. I don't know if it'll ever recover.

I finished the last set of report cards that I'll ever have to do in my life (at Elite). Wahoo!

I am so sick of hearing/talking about the Virginia shootings.

"Almost every man that hears of hell, flatters himself that he shall escape it..."
-Jonathan Edwards

Thought of the Day: Jang Nara.
Song of the Day: Snow Patrol-Spitting Games

These days, having time to watch a movie is a luxury for me. I just finished watching Rocky Balboa on my laptop (with no more sound problems!). Unlike most people, I actually enjoyed this movie because I wasn't expecting much, and it had decent closure for the Rocky series. I think you can only enjoy this movie if you love Rocky for who he is. He was a nobody. The underdog. The humble. The champ! I actually liked a particular quote from the movie:

“Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It’s a very mean and nasty place, and I don’t care how tough you are. It will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is going to hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward, how much you can take and keep moving forward."

Rocky may sound stupid, but his words are wise.

I think this past week was one of the busiest work weeks in my life. My craziest day was on Monday. I was at work from 9:30-9:30 (9 hours of teaching) and private tutoring afterwards til 11:15. If you replace the words, "the world" and "life," with "hakwon" in the quote above, you have a pretty accurate description of my ruthless job. Two more weeks and counting.

This past week, I was talking to Angelo about relationships and how I don't even have time for a girlfriend. He told me that not having enough time for ________________ is an excuse. You have to MAKE time! I really like that idea. We all complain how we don't have enough time for quiet times, exercise, reading books, family, and in my case, a girlfriend. When it comes down, you gotta make time. I mean, I've even made time to write in this stupid blog for the past five years! Time is precious. God gave us 24 hours for a reason. It is sufficient.

Cousin...

Me: Hey, why are those girls dancing over there with all those cameras around? What are they?
Nakyu: Stupid.

One sentence wonders...

"World Cultures Past and Present" cost me 23,000won!

Soo Noraebang is only 10,000won before 6pm!

They finally have Muse's "Starlight" at noraebang!

I love The Office!

I didn't do any work today!

Thought of the Day: Kyobo Tower.
Song of the Day: Johnny Nash-I Can See Clearly Now

My cd/dvd-rom can play everything but only produces scratchy, unclear sounds. I've looked on 10 billion forums and troubleshooting guides but to no avail. How'm I supposed to watch The Office like this? Somebody help me!!!

Thought of the Day: Exponents and Roots.
Song of the Day: Queen-Under Pressure

Taken from my email entry to my brother:

"In other news, work has been going alright these days. I lost a couple of students because they quit for various reasons. I'm actually pretty happy about those cause those students were bastards. But of all the days that I've been teaching at Elite, I had the FUNNIEST incident in one of my classes today. Basically, we have this detention system where you get three warnings for speaking Korean or being disruptive in class. So one of my students, Wendy, always has a bad habit of using Korean in class. After she got her third strike today, the other students started singing WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS! all passionately. After they ran out of the familiar verses, they started singing the CONGRATULATIONS song. FREAKIN' jacked up and funny. Wendy was so very pissed, and the fact that I was laughing didn't help. These Korean kids are jerks...really really funny jerks. Isn't that hilarious?"

Anyways, I absolutely relish The Office. I heard of a couple of people who really liked it, but I thought it'd just be another dumb sitcom or something. It's the hardest thing to watch it in the dark and hold in my laughs while my dad's asleep. I'll finish Season 1 tonight, and start Season 2 immediately. I actually heard that the original, British version is ten times funnier. It's hard to imagine, but that's what I thought of the American version at first, too. If you haven't seen it, I suggest you jump on it!

I've also been enjoying The Holiness of God a lot! I can see why Dinko and Simon regard it as their favorite christian book. It discusses profound ideas with such simple sentences. Now that's a good writer! Jump on this too.

For some strange reason, my ipod can't stop playing rave music. My ears will not allow me to listen to anything otherwise. Many people do not know that I was really into trance when I was a sophomore and junior in high school. Sometimes, I get really embarrassed about it. Six years later, however, the redundant beats have enTRANCEd me yet again. What a season.

Thought of the Day: TOEFL speaking secret!
Song of the Day: Feel The Beat

I finally finished Evangelical Ethics. So I've moved on to The Holiness of God.

I no longer have patience for peekvid, which means I'm going to take a break from 24. So I've moved on to The Office (thanks guys!).

I ran out of 웃찾사 on Youtube. So I've moved on to 개그야.










Thought of the Day: The Holiness of God.
Song of the Day: Oasis-Stand By Me

I've got some bad news. I had a lot of complications with work and visa, so it looks like I'll be coming back to California this week. I'm really going to miss Korea and everything that I've learned here. See you guys in a week.

*sigh*

Happy April Fools.

Yeah right I'm coming back! I'm never leaving Seoul.

Thought of the Day: Chick.
Song of the Day: Eru-까만 안경