Update

So, things have been going pretty well with my weight-loss plan.
I did pretty good working out the first week, but then I got pretty sick for two weeks and was not well enough to work out.  Unfortunately I still haven't gotten back in the groove.  I have been eating much better, though.  And in spite of not exercising, I have still managed to lose almost 9 pounds in three and a half weeks!  I am pretty happy about that.  Hopefully when I start exercising I will lose even more.


Chuseok was a lot of fun.  I ate a lot of really good food, and had a good time visiting with my friend and her family.
I don't know how Sports Day was for the kids, I was really sick and slept through most of it.


Other than that, not much is going on.  I have just been working and hanging out.


I am definitely ready to go back to the US.  I miss my family, as crazy as that sounds.  I think they are ready for me to come home, too.  I can't imagine why, though.  ^^
Well, I think that's all for now.  I will try to post again soon.  No more of this going a month between posts.
Have a great day!

Moving on. . .

So, summer holiday has ended and I have resumed teaching.  Kind of. . .  ^^  I work twice in the next two weeks.  Next week is Chuseok (추석) which is the Korean version of Thanksgiving or a Harvest celebration, which ever you prefer.  It lasts about three days and is a big deal.  Many Koreans do a ritual greeting of the ancestors, which is a really cool thing.  If you are ever in Korea and can experience this first hand, do it!  I will be joining my Korean friend and her parents.  I don't know what all they will be doing, I just know there will be a lot of food.
The week after next my school is hosting 'Sports Day', which means the students will go out and do sports for the whole day and there will be no classes.  And the Tuesday before Sports Day, which is Thursday, there will be a Sports Day practice, so no classes that day either!  So, little work, lots of time off!

I am about to embark on a new journey.
I feel like a fat ugly cow all the time.  People are always telling me I am not fat, but I feel like I am.  Especially when I am surrounded by Koreans, who are all twigs.  Well, I have finally had enough.  I am going to start changing things now.  I am going to start working out and eating a lot better.  
Hopefully I can ditch the size 14/16 jeans and get back into size 8.  My goal is to lose about 60 pounds.  I know that anyone who knows me will say I don't need to lose that much, but I do.  >.<
I have just started today, and for the most part, I think it went well.  I stayed in bed longer than I meant to, but that seems to happen on dark rainy days.  After I got up, I did a 30 minute work out.  It is called Hip Hop Abs, and it was a lot of fun!  Then I had breakfast, 2 eggs, scrambled with a little cheese melted in.  Then I cleaned my house, and went into town to do some grocery shopping.  Came home, put everything away and portioned out the meat I bought so I won't eat WAY more than I should, which is a problem I have.  Then I cooked dinner and ate it.  Dinner was lemon pepper pork with rice and a carrot.  Since then I have just been playing on the internet.
I am going to start weighing myself every few days and keeping a food diary of what I eat.  I would say that I would post my food diary on here, but I'm sure that is not something you are interested in.  If I have to write down what I am eating, I am probably going to be less likely to eat a bunch of junk.  I don't have much candy in the house and I bought a bunch of fruits and veggies when I was shopping.  Oranges, yum!  
Here's hoping I can stick to my guns on this!  I am sick of feeling fat, ugly and lazy!
I will be returning home in about 4 months.  I hope to lose enough weight that my family has to do a double take when they see me!
Think I can do it?  Want to join me?

Slacker

I am such a slacker.  I haven't been doing much of anything this summer, but I haven't made time to post.  Sorry for that.  I'm fired.So, I have made a new friend who lives near me.  She is Korean and has just returned from London.  Her aunt works at my school and decided to introduce us.  I'm glad she did.  My new friend is a really nice girl.  She is a year older than I am, and is interested in similar things.  She came over for dinner last night and we had a good time.  We talked and watched Pride and Prejudice, which is one of my favorite movies.
The plan to go to the beach a few days ago was ruined.  There was a typhoon and while we weren't in the direct path of it, we have been under the cloud cover and it has been rainy and miserable.  So, the beach trip has been postponed for next Wednesday.  Let's hope it works out this time.  I really want to go to the beach.
I have found a new song that I really like.  It is a good song that expresses how many girls feel.  I know it is how I feel all the time.  The name of the song is Ugly by a Korean female pop group called 2NE1.  (Please note that I mock their name all the time and I don't like very many of their songs, but this is the exception)
Here is a video with English subtitles.  The main chorus is in English, but some of the Korean lyrics are really poignant as well.  Let me know what you think.

Wow, it's been a while. . .

So, it has been quite a while since I last updated.  Sorry about that.  Life happened.  I was finishing up the semester, and then my computer decided to spazz on me, so I was dealing with those issues.  I finally got the issues fixed and mere hours after I had, my computer blew up, almost literally.  
There was a huge storm here and I guess there was a major power surge.  It fried my computer and my external hard drive where I had everything backed up.  So, I was computer-less for 2 days.
I bought a new computer from the nice electronics store employee.  He is so sweet!  I got free gifts and a major discount on my computer.  Sometimes it is good being the cute foreign girl!
To continue with the positive updates, I had a nice long chat with my friend the other day.  We talked out a lot of the issues we have been having with each other recently, so things are going much better with her now.
I gained a little weight recently, which made me less than pleased, but I seem to be losing it just as quickly, which is good.
I am on summer vacation and loving it.  No having to get up really early after a horrible night of barely sleeping and going to teach all day.  It is nice.  My friend and I are planning a trip to the beach in a week and a half, which I am excited about.  I love the beach!
Hopefully the weather will be better by then.  It has been raining a lot here recently.  Sadly, there has been flooding in Seoul and mudslides in Seoul and Chuncheon, which have killed and injured a number of people.  My heart goes out to all of them.
Well, I think that is it for now.  If anything else fun happens, I will update soon!

Failure. . .

Do you ever have days when you wonder if life is worth it?  I have been feeling that way lately.  I look at my life and wonder what I am doing with myself.
My time in Korea is fast approaching an end.  My contract is up in about six months and I have no idea what I want to do with myself when it is over.  I am really close to getting my bachelor's degree, so I know I want to get that, but I don't know where I want to get it.  I don't want to go back to the university I was at before, but I don't know where I want to go.  
That is problem number one.  Problem number two?  I don't know what I want to do with my life, even after I get my degree.
Due to recent events I have had to change what I had planned.  Things have changed, but now I don't know what to do.
All of this is making me feel like it isn't worth it.  I don't know what I want to do and I can't seem to find the motivation to figure it out.  There are so many things I WANT to do, but I never get around to doing them.  I feel like such a failure at life.
I want someone to come along and tell me what to do with my life, but that isn't going to happen.
A part of me wants to get married and have my husband make decisions for me. Unfortunately, I would need a man in my life for that to even be a possibility.  I have no boyfriend and no prospects, which has a tendency to depress me.  I know that I am not ready for a serious relationship right now, but that doesn't stop me from wanting it.
I think that is part of why I feel like a failure.  I don't have a career and I don't have a husband.  It has been pounded into my head that I should be married with children by now, but since I am not, I should have a career.  I have neither.  
I look at my life and I feel like I have nothing.  If I were to look in a mirror right now, (which I won't) all I would see would be a fat, ugly, useless, pathetic girl who fails at everything.  I know that isn't true, but it is what I would see.
I don't drink at all, but thinking about all of this makes me want to go out and get a bottle of wine and drink alone.
I know this has been a very depressing, negative post, but I am feeling depressed and negative, and I just wanted to get it all out there.
I will be more positive next time.

Apathetic

So, I have been feeling very apathetic towards life lately.  The weather has been weird.  It got really hot for a few days, and now it is back to being cold.  It has been raining for a few days and I miss the sun.  Being cold makes me feel so very blah.  I am kind of tempted to pull out one of my heaters.  (I have two.  A big one and a little one.)  Maybe then I won't be so listless.

Have you heard the song "Would It Matter" by the group Skillet?  I love that song, but there are so many times I feel that way, I have a hard time listening to it.  I know there are people who would miss me if I were gone, but some days it doesn't feel that way.

I bring this up because of a conversation I had with my friend the other day.  She said something that has been bothering me and has been making me feel like I can't really speak my mind.

That song came on and I told her that I should probably stop listening to it because it makes me kind of depressed.  She asked why and so I told her it was because it made me wonder if anyone really would miss me if I were gone.  She then proceeded to tell me that if I felt that way I should make it so people would miss me.  I know she didn't understand what I meant, and I can't seem to explain it in a way that she can understand.  I don't believe I have the ability to MAKE someone miss me.  She told me when it comes to things like that I see a wall and stop while she is climbing over the wall and moving on.  This seems to be her favorite thing to say to me.  I'm not sure she means for it to, but it comes across as somewhat condescending.  It makes me want to just stop talking to her.

My friend has been making the occasional comment about future events, and I keep thinking that we may not last that long.  I know I need to talk to her and tell her how I feel, but I don't know where to start.  It doesn't help anything that I am now feeling a little tense and uncomfortable around her.  I go over to her place and I get antsy and wonder when I can leave.  It used to be that I could go spend hours at her apartment doing nothing and be fine.  Now, if I'm not doing something, I am looking at the time, wondering if I can leave yet.

A good example of this is what happened on Saturday.  We went shopping in the next town over.  We usually get back around 5 or 6.  Well, we left earlier in the day so we got back earlier.  As we pulled up to her apartment complex she asked if I was coming in.  She said I could come up for a couple hours, then she would kick me out.  Before our little issue I would have gone up, but this time, I didn't really want to.  I told her I would just go home.  Well, I didn't actually go home for about 2 hours.  I went to a cafe and got my favorite drink (green tea frappeno) and sat and read for about an hour while I finished my drink.  I didn't go home, but I didn't really want to be with her either.

Anywho, moving on to a new topic.  Do you have a piece of jewelry you have to wear?  I used to be fine not wearing any jewelry.  Now, however, I have a pendant that I feel weird when I don't have it on.  Even at home, when I am just lounging around.  I now also feel naked when I don't have two bracelets and two rings on.  I have 5 bracelets and 5 rings I rotate between.  This all came about because I ordered a bunch of jewelry from ebay.  (yay for inexpensive stuff!)  I looked into stones and their mystical properties and found some that I knew I needed in my life and acquired some jewelry with those stones.  I want to learn more about stones and their properties and how they can be used, I just don't know where to start.   

The stone thing comes back to the Goddess.  I am still trying to figure out how I want to worship the Goddess and God.  I do know that I connect the Goddess to Earth and the energies and powers from it.  So, I am using the stones to help me with some issues I have been having.

Hematite is a very useful stone.  It is a protective stone and it also deflects negative energies.

Moss Agate is another of my favorites.  It has strong ties to nature and the Goddess.

Well, I think that is enough rambling for one entry.

Are there any stones you are fond of and want to know their mystical properties?  Or do you have a problem you need some help with?

Let me know, and I will do some research for you.

Summer!!! Yay and boo. ^^

It has been a while.

Life has been relatively uneventful.  Summer is here and it is getting hot, which means I have to fight getting cranky.  I love summer and sunshine, I just hate extreme heat.  Does that make sense?

My students are acting up, and I think it is because of the heat.  Poor things.  The school hasn't been turning on the AC in the classrooms, so it is very hot and miserable.  I feel bad for all of us.

In case you are wondering, things are slightly better with my friend.  We are spending some time together, but not a lot.  I don't message her very much, and I haven't been spending much time at her apartment.  I don't know if she realizes that anything is wrong.  If she does, she hasn't said anything.

I don't feel like I can really talk to her anymore.  I haven't told her anything about the Pagan/Wiccan thing, and there are some other things going on in my life that I haven't talked to her about either.  I don't feel comfortable talking to her about them anymore.  This means I have no one to talk to about certain things, but that is okay.  I can rely on myself.

On a happy(ish) note, I went to an art gallery with a friend this week.  It was fun.  I met up with my friend, whom I call Oppa (Korean for older brother), in Seoul.  We spend a couple hours in the museum and then we had an early dinner.  Then we did a bit of shopping.  After that, he took me to the bus terminal and helped me buy a ticket.  My bus didn't leave for about an hour, so we went across the street to a coffee shop.

I enjoyed myself, but there is a potential problem.  I kept wanting to touch Oppa.  Hug him, cuddle with him, that kind of stuff, and I gave in to that impulse frequently.  The problem is, I'm not sure if I am attracted to him because he is attractive or because I am lonely and just want a guy in my life.  I am worried about leading him on, because I know at one point in time he was attracted to me.  He mentioned wanting me to be his girlfriend.  Of course, that was two years ago and I was in America and he was in Korea at the time.  I don't know if his feelings have changed or if he is still attracted to me.  If he is, and I'm not really attracted to him, it isn't fair to him.  I don't want to hurt him because I do care about him.  I am very confused and don't know what to do.  Oppa hasn't done anything to indicate he wants more than a friendship with me, but I am worried.  I know I shouldn't be, especially since nothing may come of this, but I worry about everything.  What do you think I should do?  I am open to suggestions.

Hopefully things will work out.  Until then, here's hoping I don't worry too much about things I cannot control!