A Brief Hitory of May (Part 1)

Well, the most important thing to mention is that it is finally starting to get warm here. FINALLY. I walked home from knit night tonight with bare legs and was totally comfortable and not even a little cold. That's pretty remarkable for me since I have somehow turned into that person who is always cold.

Pretty, pretty Spring flowers.

Next most important thing to mention is that Ryan's little sister came to visit us along with her wonderful friend.

Ms. T is going to not like me much for putting that Dunkin' Doughnuts picture up but really, how could I not? It would be a crime, I tell you. Too cute.

We did all sorts of crazy stuff with them ...

We went to Jinju to see Korean bullfights.

Which, just in case you are wondering, is an extremely humane sport. I was expecting the worst since Koreans are pretty well known for how poorly they treat animals. I once was at a festival petting zoo where there were two rabbits, a skunk having a panic attack, a tortoise and the saddest monkey in the world all in the same cage. It was heartbreaking. I have have teared up a bit and run away.

Anyway, this is how it works: they bring two bulls into the ring and put them face to face. If it looks like one of the bulls is just going to run away, they call the fight and move onto the next match. When the bulls do fight, they just sort of rub their heads together until one of them gets tired and turns tail. The most exciting match we saw was the first one and those two bulls kept taking breaks to give each other kisses. Not to mention these bulls are some of the healthiest looks animals I've seen in Korea. True story.

But enough about Korean bullfights.

Green tea fields. Purdy!

We also took them to the green tea festival in Boesong. If you are ever in Korea and want to go to a festival, I would tell you to come to this one. It was the most un-Korean festival we've gone too since we got here and therefore was the best. Because I am a lazy blogger and Ryan does all the heavy lifting when it comes to blogs you can check out his post here.

We also spent some time on an Island called Namhea-do (I think. But that's probably wrong. I can never remember the name of this place. Hopefully Ryan will blog about it soon so that you can have accurate information) that was caked in fog the entire time we were there. But even covered in fog the island was beautiful.

Roman candles

In Korea beach = fireworks at night. So we did as the Koreans do. In fog of course.

Sparklers

On this island there is a German village, populated by German speaking Koreans, and an American village, populated by Koreans who lived in America and then moved back to Korea to live in stucco houses next to the ocean and make tons of money by having home stays.

And who also happen to be Redskins fans.

We saw some beautiful rice terraces.

In fog.

And drove up the steepest driveway ever ever EVER to see a really interesting monastery all decorated for Buddha's birthday.

Nice view, right?

By the end of our time on the island we were all starting to wonder if the rest of the world was covered in fog. Good news though, the world is not covered in fog. Hooray!

Part 2 is coming soon. Keep your eyes peeled.

The Return of Zombie Caroline

After 3 weeks of vacation and 3 days of being back at work (which means staying up because you can't sleep and getting up at 6:30 - gag - to go deal with kids who don't really understand what you're saying and don't care because they are only in school for two weeks before we have another 2 1/2 week break) I can honestly tell you that I am tired.

So tired that I don't really remember the walk from the bus stop to my apartment. I do remember that I wrote about 6 different blog posts in my head about my vacation and how wonderful it was and my birthday and also about how I have a list of things I have to do tonight and about the kind of blogs that I love to read because they make me laugh ... and now I don't remember what this post was supposed to be about.

The long and short of it is that I am (dead) tired (heh) and that I have many wonderful things to tell you about my vacation and about how I did not have a breakdown on the morning of my birthday even though I am now the oldest I have ever been.

... I just re-read that sentence. I am now going to bed. Here are some pictures of said (much missed) vacay in hopes that they will lure you to come back when I have have recovered enough to write a post with fewer (possibly none but I'm not promising anything) parentheses and run-on sentences.

Entrance to the Bantu Caves, Malaysia


Boys in skirts.

Monkey friends!

P.S. - I realized as I was putting captions for these pictures that they sum up my vacation quite nicely: we saw some temple-y type places, there were boys in skirts and lots of monkeys. Awesome.

Wholecusan Park ... Home of Bitch Mountain

Here is a bit of advice for you: If you ever go hiking in Korea (or really anywhere, I suppose) and you notice that the other people getting ready to hit the trail are dressed/equipped much differently than you are, you might want to consider re-thinking the hike you are about to go on.

1. Some beautiful colors from the start of the hike.
2. Our little group of adventurers making their way to the start of the tail.

Yes, the scenery is amazing and the misty morning really makes you feel like you can do anything. But mist and pretty leaves will not give you the ability to hike especially when you are out of shape. And carrying a pack on your back? Forgetaboutit.

I guess was making some version of this face all morning,
every picture taken before the hike looks like this!

When the Koreans are all walking around with teeny tiny packs and, not one, but TWO walking sticks ... that's when you know that your hike is probably not going to be the leisurely stroll that you may have been imagining it to be.

Although, to be fair, I probably should have realized it wasn't going to be a gentle slope when Ryan informed me that we were going on a 6 hour hike (someday I will learn ...).

However, despite almost collapsing on multiple occasions and laying down to take naps every time we stopped for more than 5 minutes (read: lunch time and when we got to the top of the first summit), I am really glad that I did it. Why?

One part insane views:

One part awesome hiking friends:

You know you have a solid group of friends when
1. they let you sleep on the hike and
2. still hang out with you after wards (I was pretty slow).

One part being able to say that yes, I did hike climb a mountain and yes it did take 6.5 hours (!!!) and yes I only fell down once thankyouverymuch.

And then also this totally sweet bridge:

Title Unkown

I have a confession to make.

Well, it's not so much a confession as it is me finally acknowledging this thing to myself. And also, to the world.

I am miserable.

It sounds dramatic, doesn't it? It's like I've been transported back in time to when I was 16 and running around saying things like "I hate my life" or "you just don't understand me" or "why doesn't that [hot boy] think I'm pretty?"

So maybe not that last one (or least not anymore, I totally know I'm pretty thankyouverymuch).

But those other two pretty much hit the mark. I'm feeling very lost, misunderstood, scared and picked on. The long and the short of it is, I hate my life as it is right now. And so I did something that most of the people I know think is a really stupid idea.

I applied, along with Armini, to teach English in South Korea.

Yes, it is a drastic change. But the most I think about it, the more I like the idea of taking a year off from my life and getting away from here so that I can clear my head and really think about what I want to do with my life.

I told my parents last night and I have to say that in some ways it went better than I thought it would, and in others it was worse. My dad took it pretty well. My mom did the total opposite of what I thought she would. Rather than totally loose it, she internalized it. Gave me a long list of things I could do here, in the country, that would me more money/get me away from Kansas/let me get started on a career.

And that ... the "c" word ... is what it really comes down too.

I haven't made it a secret that my mom has really been pushing me to go to grad school, and I think there is a lot of complicated family drama fueling it. I know that I am getting older. I know that going to grad school is going to become harder as I get older and try to start a family of my own.

And yet, despite all of this, I am still willing to push it back.

Am I avoiding it? It's possible, probable even. My motivation is 1 part getting far enough away from my parents that I can make a decision on my own, 1 part making a decision and actually following through with it, 1 part being with Amrini (lets just be honest) and 1 part I am a little sad that I didn't go to China and I want to do it now.

I don't know what's going to happen. It's possible that I am going to be one of those people who does a million different things over the course of their lifetime because I can't freaking figure out what to do with myself.

Or maybe this is just the start of me doing some epic shit. Epicly.

(thanks Jamie)

I'm Back ...

And I'm sorry for not posting before now. I've been back in the states for about a month now and I haven't written one post about anything that happened during my month in China (and yes, I spent it with Armini. And yes, it was everything I had hoped it would be), or the fact that I've moved (kind of - it's day 4 and I still haven't spent the night there) or the fact that I think I may have to go into rehab because of my new found addiction to M&M's.

Also, I'm not kidding about the M&M's thing. I literally begged my brother to bring me some last night because I hadn't had any in about 3 days and was on the verge of losing it.

So anyway ... I went to Southeast Asia! It was great. Plus I got to see this guy:

We think he may have a career as a bike cop.

We went to 3 countries - China, Laos and Thailand. Laos was my favorite. The food was fabulous, so fabulous in fact that I ate pretty much all the time and so much that I made myself

sick on more than one occasion (because I am a 5 year old who has no self control what-so-ever). Plus it's where I turned 25 (UGH) and we got to go tubing in Vang Vieng (hooray!).

Since I've been back I've started working all the time because the trip completely cleaned me out, something I wasn't as prepared for as I thought I was. Also, adjusting to this stupid-cold-winter-weather-that-never-ends has been hard. Kiss my little bity tan goodbye!

I promise that I have more posts lined up (I've already started a few of them!), I just wanted to get this out there just in case anyone was wondering if I died.

Curious ...

Well, I've been calling Boyfriend's phone to see if it's on or not. Since you can't have them on during the flight it would make sense that it would go straight to voice mail. But I just called and it RANG, he didn't answer, but it RANG.

What does this mean?!

Narrowing it down ...

So the only other flight coming into O'Hare from Frankfurt Germany is supposed to land at 5:13 pm. So Boyfriend has to be on it, doesn't he? One would hope. Of course, there's always the chance that he got the times way wrong and won't be flying in until like, midnight tonight.

If this is the case ... I am going to completely fall apart. I am going to be super annoyed with him for not just asking his mother when they were supposed to come back and super excited to see him all at the same time. Then top that off with the jitters I've got and will have until he calls me from Chicago. I'm going to be a mess when he gets off the plane ... a mess.

Then I took the time to look up the departures from O'Hare to Kansas City and the last one, that was listed on this website, leaves at 5:45. It could be a close connection ... which means that if this is Boyfriend's connecting flight he'll be back in town at a decent hour and not midnight. But again, there is always the chance that there are flights that haven't been listed yet. I'll keep checking back, as I'm sure you're just sitting there with bated breath wondering when in the hell is Super Careo's boyfriend actually coming home.

Stay tuned. I will update again probably around 5:13 because posting about all of this is actually calming me down a little and letting me get some work done.

Losing it.

Boyfriend told me that he would be back in the states (Chicago O'hare) at 3:00 or so. Well, it's 3:58 and I have heard nothing from Boyfriend. This means that he got the time wrong and he probably isn't going to land for another hour.

How do I know that he probably won't be landing for another hour? I have been looking at every single website that lists airline flights from O'Hare for the last hour trying to figure out which one Boyfriend is on. Because he is a butthole and insisted that he would just call me instead of giving me his flight information when I asked for it. Multiple times. GRRRAAAAHHHH!

Does he know what he has done to my productivity level? Destroyed it that's what. I sit, staring at my phone for stretches of 10 to 20 minutes willing it to ring, with him on the other end. I am about to lose it. I am so excited for him to call I'm shaking ... I have tons of adrenaline rushing through my system ... I'm sweating. SWEATING!

He better call soon or I very well could go flying off the deep end in the next two hours. And while I'm SO EXCITED to see Boyfriend, I'm also a little bummed that his flight is so late at night because that means that I don't get to leave work early to go fetch him from the airport. And don't think I didn't already consider just telling Boss that Boyfriend's plane was landing at 6 so I had to leave at 5. But that's dishonest, and if I stay all day today I can leave on time on Friday (I only work until 12 on Fridays) and not feel bad for not staying and making up that extra hour.

Please call me Boyfriend ... Please?

Work ... Is ... Forever

So at 3:30 I developed a severe case of the give-a-shits. I have been working through it though, and instead of not working, I simply switched tasks thinking that I would be able to occupy my time with that for a while. Unfortunately, that was only 30-ish minutes ago and it seems that my give-a-shits are getting way worse. And on top of that, I don't get to leave work for 2 more hours. AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!

I don't know what it is. Well, I do know what it is. I just don't want to work anymore today. I have the urge to pack up and leave the bulding, go home and take a nap before I make pies tonight to bring into work tomorrow. Or go pay the res t of my Macy's bill. Or both. I want to be anywhere but here. So, let's burn a few minutes of my time and go on a little pictorial journey.


I think that I would like to be here, with a nice cool tropical drink in my hand. Hey look! There's a tropical drink on the chair I didn't see until just now! Oh my god ... I have to leave here. I wonder if I can find a cheap plane ticket to the Bahamas that leaves within the next 3 hours.
What I would do at the beach:
* tan
* nap in the sun (with lots of sunscreen on)
* snorkel
* play in the surf
* drink cocktails



Or maybe you don't like the beach because you get sand in all the places you don't like to touch. Fair enough. Let's go somewhere that doesn't have any sand.

Here you go. We went hiking in the clean, brisk air of some mountains (don't ask me where, they're just mountains ok?) and we stumbled upon a beautiful clean waterfall and pool. Oh the glories of nature never cease to amaze me. I thought this was a pretty place, and right now I would really rather be there than here in my cube.
Things I would do at the waterfall:
* swim
* try to go fishing
* hang a hammock and take a nap
* drink alcohol from the flask I stuck in my back pack
* wait for a unicorn to come to take a sip from the spring we found because we didn't know that it was a magical spring in a magical wood that is gaurded my this beautiful creature.

No much into hiking? Does the thought of it make your feet hurt? Afraid of being eaten alive by various bugs and/or bears? Don't fret, we don't have to hike.

Well, a nice ride in a gondola will be nice. The city is lovely and I'm sure that it wouldn't cost much more to get a gondola that came with a guy who sings while you paddle around.
Things I would do on a gondola ride:
* enjoy the sites
* lean back and enjoy getting paddled around the canals in Venice
* maybe doze off for a minute because I'm sure we'll have been on our feet all day
* take a swing from the flask I stuck in my purse



Well if you didn't like that one then I don't know what else to do. Those are the places that I would like to be. Geez you're picky.



If you really didn't like any of the places that I took you to, then I think that this is the best place for you to be. In bed. Wow, you forgot to make it this morning didn't you? Not only are you a super picky but you're a slob too. I think you should spend sometime working on yourself before you go out into the world. Although that bed does look pretty comfortable. I would get into it even if it is unmade. In fact, I don't know why I care that you forgot to make it. I never make my bed.

Thanks for coming along with me on my work time journey into the wilderness and back home again. Hopefully these next 2 hours will go quickly.