Summer Pictures in Winter

Winter has already come as seen in my previous post of snow falling. But as I clean up my computer and put my photos in their proper folders I saw that I had some from last summer still not posted. Therefore, to warm everyone up a bit here are some summery shots.

They are from a walk I took at the river nearby my old house, where I enjoyed the shadows and dragonflies.

The Snow

 

Korea seemed like it didn't want to let me go when I left last Wednesday. It snowed throughout the day and even on our drive to the airport. All I knew is that by being out of Korea for three months, I get to avoid a snowy-freezing winter.

It snows here but nothing like last year in Korea. Don't get me wrong, I do think snow is beautiful just up to the point before it freezes and makes walking to work a hazard.

Trader Joe's Karot Cake

Ah, the joy's of being back home. One of the major bonuses, I feel, of being back in your home country is shopping at grocery stores. There are the usual supermarkets like Safeway, but the ones I like most visiting are those with a theme. Several years ago the store Trader Joe's became really popular. It was a place I frequented for quality frozen meals and oddball foods. It was like a health foods store but more hip and open-minded.

Yesterday, as we we headed three hours northeast to get home we stopped at Trader Joe's. Although I tell people I am from San Francisco the truth is I only lived there while in college. My California hometown is up in the foothills. The area I am in is not a complete small town, due to you do have plenty of shopping and entertainment areas. But there isn't a Trader Joe's here. You have to drive out about an hour to get to one. I think that is the charm of living in a small town, because whenever you get out and go to a shop that isn't in your area you feel somewhat special.

Anyways, I picked up some groceries and had a hard time not wanting to buy everything. I took home a carrot cake or as TJ's calls it a "Karot Cake." This evening I defrosted it and had myself a slice.

I Was Overweight

I'm talking about my check-in luggage. Winter clothes plus my art supplies and everything else made for two very heavy suitcases. I am sure I could have packed better and gotten rid of more clothes, but for some reason I didn't do that this round. Of course I paid for this mistake at the airport when I found out. We had to pull the suitcases aside and repack one to make it heavier than the other. This way, instead of paying 200,000 for each overweight suitcase I just paid for one.

The flight home wasn't too bad, but I certainly was surprised at the gate. As we boarded the plane I looked out to see it and noticed that it wasn't an Asiana plane but a United one. The ticket I bought was an Asiana ticket, although I did notice it was a carrier of United. My thinking was that the plane was going to be Asiana, boy was I wrong. There were significant differences in flying an American owned company versus an Asian aircraft. For starters there weren't any personal TV displays. Movie watching was left to aisle TV's, and whatever they picked. Our in-flight entertainment consisted of Eat, Pray, Love and some kind of mildly-scary movie. I listened to Eat, Pray, Love for the first few hours of the flight while they served us dinner. This meal wasn't spectacular and there were only Western style choices. Although, I was complaining about always having either BiBimBop or steak for dinner, I really missed the Korean option.

After the lights went out and people settled down more I took into my usual flying routine. That is of covering my eyes with an eye-mask, putting in ear plugs and snuggling up with my neck pillow and blanket. My seat-mates were a Grandma and a Grandpa, which was cute at first until they decided to talk for two hours while I was trying to sleep. After awhile I was beginning to wonder if they were ever going to get tired and shut-up. I figured out a strategy, which was to get up and go use the bathroom, which by the way we were seated next to. Thankfully, this idea worked as I when I got back to my window seat, the Grandpa was walking up and down the aisles for exercise and Grandma was resting in her spot.

I think the trick to sleeping on a plane is to move around till you find a comfortable position. It seems the body knows what to do at that point. I believe I got in about two hours sleep, not completely restful but worthy. The flight was actually kind of short coming in at just barely 10 hours. I'm not sure if flying during the winter time means the winds are better or something.

Anyways, I learned two lessons from this trip. One, that you should double check the baggage restrictions and two that you should try your best not to fly United Airlines.

Before I Go

Yesterday, was my first Monday with no work. I soon realized what having no schedule means, which is that you end up with vasts amounts of time. I got out and went to my old neighborhood to visit Tom and run a few errands.

I saw Tom enjoying my friend's rubber glove. But I was pleased to see Tom getting along with his brother (previously named Hamster) now called Kaiju. 

I didn't visit Tom today and might not make it tomorrow, so I guess yesterday's visit was my last goodbye till I see him in February.  Grow strong my little Tom!

After visiting I went in to the local area and picked up some stickers and toys for my friend's family. Then I got a bite to eat and went on back to my friends house to rest. Several hours later I was back out for dinner with my girlfriends. It was time to say goodbye, till my return. We enjoyed a Japanese noodle dinner and cupcakes afterward.

 It seems like a pattern in my life where either I meet great friends and then they move or I have to. But we agreed to meet in Jongno, Seoul next year.

 Today wasn't that active and it consisted of helping my friend take her cat (not related to mine) to the Vet and then going to the bank to get some American cash. 

Tomorrow I leave for America around 6:45 pm. I want to let you all know that I will keep on blogging about Korea, America and anything as time passes. You can look forward to some great posts about my boyfriend's first visit to America around Christmas and New Year's time. Korea is getting colder so I hope all my K-buddies out there have their ondols working and footsies kept warm. 

:)

Cozy

From the words of my boyfriend, "Don't worry, it will take just 30 minutes to clean." I gave him a serious look and told him no. I explained we needed to make it clean so I get my money back. The truth is I don't even know if the cleaning has anything to do with getting my deposit back. From what I gather it has more to do if items are missing or broken. Oh well. I wanted to make sure that the new teacher and my old coteachers saw me as a clean person who doesn't just leave them with a mess.

Once we got all the stuff out, like suitcases and other such things, it was a lot easier to start. We scrubbed, scraped and washed off the past year. Finally, around five o'clock we looked around and knew we were finished. I was going to clean my trash bins but gave up due to just not wanting to clean anymore.

The sad part about cleaning a place and having it look so minimal is that you wish it was like that everyday. Every time I do this I say I am going to be cleaner and better in my new place. haha!

The new teacher is getting a lot of bonuses. For one I left my curtains, since we were too tired to stuff them in the car. Along with the cleaning supplies, an ample amount of toilet paper and even a cheap sketchbook, the new teacher is getting more than the usual empty office-tel.

I am currently relaxing and enjoying the good life at my friend's house till Wednesday. Ah time to get on a plane again. I'm starting to think about what to do with my free time, books to read, things to make...:)