Missing the Following:

Its been ages now since I last stepped foot on Korean soil. Do I miss it? Yes. Very much. Am I glad to be home- of course. But still. To think, this time last year, I was enjoying Chusok, Soju, and the beauty of Korean autumn. I miss the following in no particular order:

1. I miss being a teacher! I miss going on dorky field trips with my preschoolers.

2. I miss this guy! Convenience Store Guy never spoke much more than a lick of English but was always friendly as hell and a bright, friendly part of my day.

3. Mingi. This kid was so frickin' cute and soooo unruly and misbehaving. Gotta love a spoiled 4 year old Korean child constantly keeping you busy.

4. Wild nights as the Soju Monster and good company. Damn, I know the terrible quality Korean booze downright ruined my stomach but still, where else can you get a bottle of booze that will get you wasted and almost hallucinating for only $1,000 Won ( about $1)????

5. Weekend trips! What a blast, even if it was cold and rainy and I bitched the whole time, I was still having fun. Trust me on this:)

6. The busy streets of Meungdong. Trips to Seoul came either one of two ways. Either ride for 45 minutes on a nauseating, over-crowded bus or ride for an hour and a half on an over-crowded, stuffy subway. I always chose the subway, or else I would feel like vomiting the rest of the day. Meungdong was always the ultimate fashion and shopping mecca for young Koreans.

7. Walks along the river on the little path to my house. I miss my old neighborhood, with all of its random call-girl cards strewn about, PC Bangs, and junk convenience stores. Oh, and I miss cans of Gatorade. Soo delicious!

8. Cute stuff galore!!!! Everywhere I went, cute and bizarre things would steal my heart and practically rip my eyeballs out of thier sockets. Everything and everyone was just so dang adorable, I felt as if I might burst.

9. Mondu. Of fuck, do I ever miss mondu!!!!!!! The ultimate warm your belly food. Those soft little dumpings are what dreams are made of. And cheap, cheap, cheap.

10. Korean BBQ and drunken, misbehaving coworkers. Lindsay's face is priceless and Aram, we always loved your misbehaving, abnoxious ways, even if we pretended we didn't. And my God, Korean BBQ is just sooo frickin' amazing. Best food ever.

Sometimes, I hear a little voice that tells me that I am ready for more travel and adventure. Day in and day out, I work here. We try to spice things up by getting a dog, getting a new car, new shoes, whatever but it still seems dull in comparison to my life this time one year ago. Then again, I remember many weekends never even leaving my apartment apart from getting a bite to eat. I remember being incredibly alone in one of the most densely populated countries in the world. But to me, the past is best romanticised and played up a bit.

Glorious Corner Store

I really enjoy the fact that this little store has all the snacks and drinks I could possibly want literally 30 seconds away from my front door. Like at 11:30 at night, I can decide I want an apple juice and just throw my coat on over my pajamas and I am there!

Added bonus: The super hot Jinro Soju ads on the side!

Korea is so ridiculously hip, don't you think?

More blogging to gush about how much I frickin' love Honik University. I coo-choo-choose Honik as my new love of my life. I wanna move there and bask in the loveliness of cute Korean hipsters and the whole non-Foreigner thing. They even had a greaser-50's guy store there. Crazy!

Me doing the creepy thing and modeling with the self timer in the bathroom like a 12 year old on Myspace. Baaaah, I just wanted a picture of my cute new bunny shirt I got for $8 at a boutique around the Honik area.

Soju and Hite beer earrings. Along with a Marlboro and cigarette cell phone dangler. Gotta teach the kids what's up, I guess.

Um, I finally found Nylon Korea..... In the subway. Most magazines here come with awesome samples and they are like 10 times thicker than magazines back in the U.S. I also picked up Cracker magazine, which I saw on the net. Free!!! Street fashion and good stuff.

This girl at Honik totally made these pins and I bought tons of them!!! She was selling them for $1 each- crazy huh? She drew the little pictures then cut them out and pasted and clear coated them onto a wooden back with a pinback. I wanted to buy everyone she had! Sooo cute and awesome! And she was amazed that I was American. I guess there are not many foreigners in the Honik area. Hmmm.

Krispy Kreme donut stickers from the Krispy Kreme donut place I had a snack at. They make the donuts right there in their little factory and they took one right off the line for me to have for free as a sample or something. It was sooooo amazingly good!

Here is a sweet handmade journal I picked up at Honik at the book festival. Some cool college girls made them! Yes! Octopus man is having his way with hot girl.

This blog entry was sooo self-gratifying and probably only interesting to me. Oh well.