first week of school

I miss the smiles that Gelly gives me when I give her a snack she secretly wants but is too afraid/polite to ask for.
I miss touching Amy's face in hopes of creeping her out.. even though she says it doesn't work.. hmph.
I miss the magical hand hugs with Ryo.
I miss James' intensity when he talks about comic books.... or Indiana Jones.. haha
I miss pushing Angie over and her hysterical laughter in response to me doing so.
I miss going totally bonkers over cute shit with Jason(although he appears aloof on the exterior.. "pshyeh, panda sneeze?"
I miss going crazy over sigur ros with Katharina.
I miss Silvia's adorable and unique laugh.
I miss Seth's stories of how he's totally a minor celebrity in Korea.



Do you guys get it? I totally miss you all. Every single one of you. Even the person that I always saw on the way to class, in KLI sheekdang, in the study lounge, in the hallways of Korean.. but never even really knew the name of. Ughh.. why do I always fall victim to this stupid/great thing called nostalgia? I am not going to use the word reminisce.. I don't know why but I hate that word. I feel like it belongs in some Brian McKnight song or similar. But I digress..

So today was the first day of KLI. I haven't slept much at all in the days since I've been back from the trip.. I don't know why. I know it'll fall back into place sooner or later.. but sometimes I go into times when I can't sleep.. so I've been in this half-awake and super delirious zombie mode... already completely disoriented because hey it's weird to see that again or whoa can't process the fact that I'm actually back. Anyway.. I missed my first class .. completely. I didn't go and it was the first day. Can you believe it? I drink a small can of iced coffee and whenever I'm feeling stressed out, caffeine is NOT good for me. I was in a complete disarray, basically I'm just completely out of my mind. The chaos of it all.. the cyclical nature of that chaos.. and how it feels both gross and how it's kind of a relief at the same time... bizarrely enough. I remember that Pat's in a certain room and I'm looking for anyone familiar at this point. I see him and pretty much explode through the doorway completely bat shit crazy. I look at him and let out probably a barely discernable sentence to any normal person.. I'm sure it just sounded like a really shrill hodge podge. Pat could probably only figure out what I was saying because he's known me and my neurosis for a pretty ok amount of time now... I don't know. I guess I miss people that can understand, and even learn to love, my tendency to be a huge nut case.

O.k. now I'm continuing this blog.. no longer the first day of KLI.
The first week of school is over... somewhat successfully. I think I'll enjoy my classes this semester.. although it seems that I'll actually have to study and gasp, attend class! I think it will be gratifying though. Here's a quick run down on my classes..

-Art History: Well, yeh.. I missed the first day of it already.. and I hear you can only miss 2 days otherwise your grade will be lowered a whole letter grade. What the fuck? On Tuesday, it starts at 9am... and I am pretty notorious for missing my morning classes. No one thinks I can do it.. Hell, I don't even think I can do it. Ah well. We'll see. The teacher is kind of boring so far.. and right now we're discussing cave paintings...... ughh. She likes to call on random students with random ass questions... fine, I'll agree to being called on if no one is responding to your question... but nope. She just calls on people and then asks the question. Not fair. We'll see... Peter says it gets better. Hope so.

-North Korea and Modernity: On recommendation from Gelly. The teacher is really really cool... the class seems interesting so far although we haven't really gotten into anything heavy yet... still going through the introductory period where it's just a really broad overview and such... it's funny because he was asking some rhetorical questions in order to relay to the next broad overarching topic for discussion.. and people would answer with the obvious answers... to which the teacher responded, "Uh.. yes.. but it was more of a rhetorical question." Later on it happened again, and he just said "hm... yeh.. maybe I shouldn't ask these questions." Heh heh.

-East Asian Philosophy in Literature: Mind blowingly awesome. I don't have any background in philosophy so I expect my mind to get fucking WORKED.

-Korean: For everyone who was here last semester, the structure of the courses has been reworked.. there are all new books... much to my dismay since I have James' textbooks from last semester. Balls. So I had to purchase a whole new set which cost me a whopping 58,000 Won! Twice as much as last semester! At least it's not as bad as beginner 2 books.. they're 68,000. Total shit. I was actually in Beginning 2 initially since I didn't take the placement test.. but one day, I was sitting in class when my reading teacher from last semester walked in.. in tow was Kent Davies( "the old guy" from last semester).. apparently he tried to go into her class, and our teacher was like 'what the heck are you doing here?" since he took level 1.5 last semester and she is currently teaching Level 1. Then we find out that level 2.. actually, still no one is 100% certain of what level 2 is now.. we find out that MAYBE it's this semester's 1.5(although there is a current 1.5 in existence now)... I have no idea. So our teacher takes us into Beginning 3 instead.. I have Tiffany Ahn's teacher from last semester.. the guy teacher. Sitting in class, I realized that I was the worst one among all of them.. much to my embarrassment, all of the non-Korean people are better than me... AHH! (I realize that I already told a bajillion people this story.. but here's to the ones that I haven't told.. sorry for the repetitiveness)... The teacher tells us random words for stock exchange, or trading company.. and asks the class, 'You guys all know this.. right?"... to which everyone nods and the annoying ass cocky girl next to me is like "mmMm".. she says this after everything the teacher says, in order to make sure he knows that she knows... fucking kill me. I'm so stressed out that I can't pay attention and am praying that he won't call on me.. every time he even looks at me, I just scribble into my notebook at a furious pace to make it seem like i am yulsheemi kongbuheh-ing (studying earnestly).. he gives us our 10 minute break, and the annoying girl next to me goes, "Ugh.. this is all review to me. I already know all of this. I have to go up a level." to which I respond, "OH my god. You totally should.".. she tells me this is her 4th semester of Korean, so I tell her "Then yeh.. this is ridiculous.. you should definitely go up a level.".... who knows? I might be sending her to a grave, but who cares? She's out of my life! Nice!

Anyway, since so many people were trying to go up or down a level.. the teacher gave us an impromptu quiz to determine who really belonged in the class.. holy shit. Cold sweat. He gives us a writing test... I suck at spelling.. and then a speaking quiz in front of the entire class! Everyone before me gets easy questions like, "What's your favorite food?".. or "What do you like to do on the weekends?".. He tells me a word I don't know... so I have to tell him in front of everyone, that I don't know what he is saying. Next he asks me if I have seen any Korean movies.. I tell him "Yes.. Old Boy".. he asks me to explain the plot. What?? Now I'm kicking myself because I could've chosen a simpler movie.. even in English, Old Boy is pretty difficult to explain. I mean, god.. I don't even begin to know how to say "revenge" or "sex with your daughter" in Korean... now I'm panicking.. I probably look like a total asshole.. so I just say "have you seen the movie?? it's too difficult to explain!"(in Korean of course).. he responded, "Yeh.. you're right. It is too hard) Whew. Saved. Anyway, the class is getting easier now.. probably because I'm not in a constant panic mode. I still think the class is pretty hard but I think it'll force me to study.. so I don't have to be the class dumbass.

It's really weird being back at school.. walking through the halls of KLI. The place is so familiar but all of the new faces aren't. I used to enjoy the 10 minute breaks during Korean because I'd get to see all of my friends in the hallway... but now it's kind of terrifying.

O.k. so that's my first week of school... in a crazy ass nutshell from a crazy ass nutcase.
All 720 of my pictures from my trip are already up on my facebook.. enjoy!
Take care guys. Miss you all... as always.