Currently Reading The Book of General Ignorance By John Mitchinson, John Lloyd see related

The Pox!!!

So, I've been in the hospital for about a week now. I had a really bad fever and woke up one morning with red bumps all over my face. Turns out I had the chicken pox. Yes, the pox!!! No, i didn't get it when i was a kid. My mommy didn't let me play with the kid that had it. Turns out it's really bad when you get it as an adult.

Let me tell you how unprofessional korean nurses are. So, they had to stick an IV in my arm. They started with my left arm and blew up some veins. Then they went to my right arm, and blew up a couple more veins. Then they THOUGHT they had it in my vein and left. Only to find that they really got it under my skin and not my vein. As a result, my right forearm grew extremely large because the medicine was going in my arm and not through my vein. Then they went back and forth from my left arm and my right arm. In the end, I look like a herion addict with bruises all over my arms. I was THIS close to just sticking the needle in myself.

I wish I had my camera to show you guys the hospital clothes I was forced to wear. It would've been a good laugh for y'all. I was quarantined in my own room. They told me to stay away from children and seniors, incase my bumpy pizza face scared them all to death. Getting the chicken pox and being in a hospital full of nurses that graduated from The Homer Simpson's School of Quacks just adds to my Why-Anna-Hates-Korea list. I thought about how many koreans I could give my special "gift" to, but that would make me bad. I spent many days staring out the window contemplating on how I can make my escape. Can you imagine me running around in circles outside with my hospital clothes yelling, "I'm free! I'm free! HAHAHAHA!!!!" They would definitely lock me up in a rubber room next time. Since I couldn't move around for days, I literally felt my butt getting bigger. Yes, it happens folks! If you don't move around, your butt seriously grows bigger. For a no-butt like me, I thought this would be a nice blessing, but my butt remains flat as ever. Instead, my thighs decided to grow like tree trunks. niiiiiiiiiice...........

Anyway, I'm finally free and back home. I guess I should be thankful that I got this now and not later during my vacation. I was able to miss out on a few days of work. Yesssss......

I'll be seeing you all in a couple months. My contract ends August 31. The semester ends earlier, but they're forcing me to stay and live through this unbearable weather.

Lates!

Anna

Get Ready to Drool!!

So, I decided to commit all my paychecks into vactioning around asia. I just returned from a most fabulous trip to Thailand and Cambodia. AND, I went by myself. I know...I was nervous too. But in the end, vacationing alone was the BEST trip I ever had!!! hahaha.....

Here are some pics to look at:

First, I went to Japan. I decided to see what all the hype was about Tokyo. DON'T GO!!! It's soooooo crowded. Plus, it rained everyday except for the day I left. How sucky is that?

Japanese ramen in Japan is GOOOD!!! I sat in this booth. Notice there are 2 walls next to me. I couldn't talk to my friend. I was eating in a voting booth. The wooden cutain goes up and a japanese guy peaks his head through and just gives me my bowl and leaves. Very bizarre!!!

You don't talk to people in Japan. You only talk to vending machines. This is the menu at a retaurant. You put in money, push the button of the food you want, and get a ticket. No pick eaters allowed in Japan. That's my friend Christine.

This was the classiest jewelry store I've ever seen. Thought you guys might get a nice laugh! hahaha.....

Here's Tokyo Tower and the rest of the city on my last day when it WASN'T raining. Not going to Japan anymore.....at least not Tokyo.

Here's my trip to Thailand!! One of the best trips I ever had. I was in Phuket for 5 days.I took a boat out and went kayaking around a bunch of islands.

That's me and my guide. His name is Pong. If you ever go to Thailand, go on the John Gray's Canoe Tour. It's THE best one there, and ask to get Pong as your guide. He paddled while I took pics. We saw mangroves, monkeys, and all sorts of cool stuff.

I even saw some caves in the islands. They were so cool! There were bats living in some of them. It gets dark. Something was dripping on me and I couldn't tell if it was water or bat poo. eeewwwww........

This is Maya Bay. I went swimming in these clear, carribean waters. Nice eh? BTW, why do europeans insist on wearing speedos? They should all be flogged!!

I rode around in a speed boat. It was fun! I went snorkling in these waters and saw the coolest fish and coral. I think they made the movie The Beach here.

Hanging out on the beach, sipping my Mai Tai in a pineapple. Yesssssssssss.......... Oh, by the way, thai food in thailand is GOOOOOOOOOOD!!!!!!!

I spent a day hiking and looking at waterfalls. This one is called Band Pae Watefall.

This is me lost in a rainforest. I hiked for about 1.5 hours. I climbed over fallen trees, climbed rocks, crossed small rivers. It was hot and humid and I heard strange forest noises. It was kinda getting scary!!

This is my right foot when I found my way back and saw there was a leech feeding on me for the past hour. I pulled him off and my ankle started to bleed like crazy through my sock. That stupid leech ate me through my sock!!! yuck!!!!

Here's me at the Grand Palace in Bangkok. So pan-chak, pan-chak!!!

Now here's me riding around in Cambodia. Yes, I went to Cambodia. This is Mr. Phat (no joke!!). He was my personal driver for my entire stay in Cambodia. Awesome! I got a personal driver. hehehe.... The food in Cambodia is similar to thai food, but not as flavorful. The weather was extremely hot and humid. It was a hot and humid trip! There are more koreans living in Cambodia than I thought. This is Siem Reap. The area where Angkor Wat is located. 90% of Cambodians are Buddhist. The missionary teacher in me came out and I spent half the day checking out the area. I went to a local school. It's nicely kept, but everything looks just like Bolivia. People are poor. The government is extremely corrupt here. The people don't get the money they need. They're still bitter about Pol Pot and the all the Cambodians dying in "The Killing Field." I saw the that place, it was sad.  :(  The only religion allowed to be taught in school in Buddhism. It costs $5,500 to build 1 classroom and a 1square meter of land costs a little over $10.

This is one of the temples in Angkor. These temples were built 700-800 years ago. The trees have grown over them. Nowhere else in the world are trees like this. The birds would drop the seeds on the temples and because it's so humid and rainy ehre sometimes, the trees just began to grow over them like this.

This is a temple that was built by the king. After it was built, lightning struck the temple, so it was never used because the king took that as a bad sign. Waht a waste!

This is the entrance to Angkor Wat, the biggest temple. Wat means temple. What can I say, other than it was an awesome sight to see.

Right now, they are reconstructing the temples. See the green stuff? A japanese company is in charge of reconstructing this site, so I saw a lot of japanese architects running around.

Anyway, these are just a few of my 400 pics I took. I wish I could show them all to you. Maybe when I see you guys I can share some more. I did get food poisoning at the end of my trip. It was bound to happen considering all the food I was eating. I was seriously going crazy!!!

Next trip: Italy!!!! hahaha....i can't wait! I'm going in august.

miss ya guys!!!

anna

Was I even there?

So, I just got back from LA after being there for about 3 days. I didn't sleep the entire time.

My friend's wedding was so awesome! It was outdoors in Dana Point. I was freezing in my dress, but who cares? It was grea time, but here's why I'm so upset. I was practically running to the airport in my bridesmaid dress and threw all my stuff in my check-in bag, including my awesome camera. Usually you have with until the TSA security guy inspects your bag and gives you the OK to get on board. But not this time! He just told me to go. I even asked if I needed to stay and he said no. Then I come back to my sacred rice patty and look in my bag. I notice a TSA card syaing they had to open my luggage and inspect. Everything was there until I plugged in my camera to my laptop. NO MEMORY CARD!!!!!! Someone jacked my memory card out of my camera, which makes no sense! Now, you're probably thinking that I forgot to put it in, but that's not true because I was looking back on all my pics before I put it in my bag. Anyway, all my pics of my friend's wedding are gone, plus the pics I took of my SBF peeps in El Torito. I'm sooooooooooooo sad......

No one else really had a camera except for one of the other bridesmaid. She only took 4 pictures! How do you take a camera to a wedding and only take 4 pictures?!?!

Anyway, here's me, Renee, Jaime, and Mandy's sister in the back.

Renee was a model. She has 2 kids and she still looks like that?!?! Dang, I look chubby standing next to her.

So, I return from my fuzzy trip to LA, with no sleep, and had to imeediately go to work when I got in. I skipped a day because of the time difference and I arrived on Monday. I had to suffer through a whole day's worth of bad English.

I wish I could've stayed a bit longer. I'm thinking about returning in August, but we'll see.

Miss you guys!!!

Anna  :)

Korea & random stuff

So, part of the program at my school is sending the students to America for 1 month at the end of the semester. Ever since that Virginia Tech massacre, all my students are seriously worried about going. They keep asking me everyday if it's really okie to go. They're afraid that angry Americans will try to hurt them since they're Korean. I told them that Americans aren't super racist anymore, although I know that some still are. But I couldn't lie to them. I told them that Koreans who immigrate to America try so hard to build a good reputation and it only takes one retard to bring the whole image down. Any NORMAL person will know that Cho was seriously mental and he doesn't represent all South Koreans. When this news first broke out, my co-workers and I had a funny feeling that the shooter was korean. Don't ask me how we knew, but we somehow did. It was weird!!! I just hate how the media tries to subtley cause violence and racism (probably just to get a good story) by pointing out that Cho was a South Korean who was also an alien resident. He's been there since he was like 8 years old!!! That guy was totally American!!! He didin't even speak with an accent. Besides, no Korean who recently moves to America will voluntarily become an English major. I read some of Cho's writings. He was a terrible English major.

Anyway, I'm just spending my weeks trying to calm my students down. As the semester comes to a close, I think they'll be really worried, but I'm sure their fears will quickly subside once they see that America is a beautiful country filled with open-minded, nice people (mostly).

On a different note, here are some pics to show you guys.

Gotta love those po-jang-ma-chas. A lot of people get sick from eating dduk-bok-gee and o-dang from these places because the food sits there all day, but true koreans have stomaches similar to vultures and they can digest anything.

This is the street of Gangnam, one of the most popular places to hang out.

no comment.

So, do i make the sorta right, or the kinda right?

spring is here and cherry blossoms are everywhere. feels very "asian," whatever that means. i've been trying to be a better photographer. not bad, eh?

me, my great daddy, and my senile grandma at songri-san. we hiked up this mountain to see this buddhist temple and this giant cement buddha. we rented a mini moped for my grandma. she's never driven any sort of vehicle in her life! she drove right into the ticketing booth because she couldn't remember to let go of the handle to stop. other people's grandmas were doing donuts around her. so simple: pull the handle to go, let go of the handle to stop. agggghhhhh..... you can sorta see the moped in the background.

Currently Listening God Bless The Child (Special Edition) - (With VCD) - Philippiine Tagalog Music CD see related

Adapted?

So, I thought it was really ironic that I'd go through some breaking and molding during Passion week. Guess I was just fed up with so many things that I had to finally give it all up to God. All week God worked in me and brought me back to Him. It was painful, but awesome. I'm actually having a really great week and I know the rest of my time here will be good. I realized I spent 8 months here and haven't really done anything. So I planned a lot of trips, even a couple on my own, and am excited to go. I won't mention where I'm going yet cuz I want to surprise you with some cool pics.

My Easter was really cool. My church here held an Easter Gala. There are sooooo many talented people at this church. It's really amazing! Here are some pics from easter and a few others I want to show you guys. ENJOY!!!

That's Ricky and Bomin- the MC's. Yes they're both pretty. Bomin is a singer and Ricky is an actor. He recently came out on a korean drama called Miracle. Maybe it'll hit the states soon.

Those are my buds Todd (DJ) and Randy (rapper). His rap name is 1Kind(?) not sure about it, but he's REALLY good. He loves God so much and comes up with the greatest lyrics expressing his love for Him.

These are my peeps: John, Ruth, Christine, and Todd. They're really cool!

It's Yellow Dust season and that's what the sun looked like. It's "suppose" to be a clear day, but notice all the dust that covered up the sky. Everything was yellow: the cars, the streets, even the people. What's China doing over there anyway? Is it their yearly "dance around and kick up dust" festival?

Just wanted to show you the concrete forest my grandma lives in.

This is an advertisement for coffee. What the.....????? and yet my friend felt compeled to buy a cup.

Anyway, I wanted to post up more pics, but my xanga won't let me, so maybe later.

BTW, I saw my dad. he's fine but he got so OLD!!! When did he get so old???? I think he realizes his age and knows that his health isn't the greatest. He tried to give me one of those father-daughter talks and I almost choked up and cried. Thanks for your prayers guys. I going to try to spend as much time as I can with him while he's here.

Later gators! Oh, my contract is up in August. Still not sure what I'm going to do. This dinky country is sorta grwoing on me. I know, I know.....NOOOOOOOOOOOO, but what can I say? It's more comfortable to live in CA, but easier to make money here. Can you believe that? Anyway, we'll see.