hello~~♪ this is my livejournal.
❞
I no longer use LJ as a blog!
i just finished with midterms 
ok i still have one midterm for an online class this friday, but the korean midterm was the hardest one (of course). idk how i did 
for the speaking test, the teacher was SO kind and made it so easy. it was easier than any of my level one speaking tests were, so i really appreciate that. she seems to really understand what level we are all at 
if you can't tell by the picture on the right, i got new glasses! 
this is something i had been looking into on and off. i know glasses are generally cheaper & easier to get here, but my prescription is the opposite of most people (mine is +6~ while everyone else usually has a negative number). this makes my glasses more expensive 
but finally i just did it and got these. they WERE more expensive, but about the same as they would with insurance in the states & i really really like them 
my eyes are still magnified by the glasses, but i think because the frames are so large, it is not as noticeable as all my old glasses 
i've begun tutoring two younger girls, one around 10 years old, the other around 13 
the younger one has good english, but is very fidgety and it is harder to keep her on topic 
the older one, though her english isn't that great, is very patient and good at listening to me and staying on topic 
i think both girls are very nice and cute and their mothers are both very nice to me i only meet with each of them twice a week for an hour, so it doesn't take up too much time. so i haven't done anything really fascinating recently. at the beginning of april i did meet a couple of the anon-tumblrs from busan who came up to seoul~ 
it was so great to meet them all, and i feel all sneaky now that i know who they are 
but because money has been tight, i have been trying to study more and just generally hang out outside of my apartment, i haven't done very much/taken a lot of pictures 
i do take a handful for my photography class (which i really love!), but those are all boring 
however, our next assignment is to photoshop something from one photo into another, and i have some ambitious plans for that, so i'll try to show that off~ 
ah i have the rest of the week off 
i'm so happy to just randomly be able to sleep in!also, if you guys want to suggest good korean movies, dramas or tv shows for me to watch, i'd love that i need to start watching a lot more korean media so i can hear korean spoken naturally. i am aiming to find some dramas i can watch every day or something.
pensive
hey guys, wat up
i really was going to stick to my ~*~about~*~ once a week thing, but then the earthquake/tsunami/nuclear power plants all happened and i suddenly felt dumb for taking up internet space with my unrelated photos & rambling not that those problems are all 100% fixed now but things seem to be looking up (thankfully). that said, i know this is utterly selfish, but all my friends and their families (that i know of) are all safe. but let's keep supporting & donating whenever possible, ok? 
so far classes are good; the two online are sort-of boring but only because i am not being lectured at in person 
i could never do an online-degree or anything, i know that now! and korean class is going at the speed of light 
i'm not stressed...yet. it seems keunseok has been inspired to become interested in photography (or re-inspired? i guess he used to be into photography a bit in the beginning of the 2000s). he bought a used Canon EOS 5 film camera as well as an extra lens and then bought me this cute little lenses that comes from a cctv camera 
it looks so funny put on my camera because of the size, and there is no zoom but it makes an awesome effect! 
i am taking a lot more photos than i was before. i even keep trying to take video that i could upload onto youtube, but so far i haven't had the drive to follow through with any editing or anything 
we'll see~ maybe when the weather is really nice... speaking of the weather! it's most definitely started to become SPRING! i'm so happy; there are some days when it can be cold, but usually it isn't too bad. the only down point of spring here in the rok is that yellow dust has arrived 
so far it isn't awful, but i remember when i visited last spring one of the days with a high warning for the dust was so strange; it looked foggy but a little yellow and no one wanted to stay outside at all! oh, that and it's dangerous to be outside in the dust for too long 
melancholy
School has started for me!
My Classes
Photography and Expressions Major Issues in Korean Politics (online) Culture & Environment of Korea: A Geography (online) Korean III Tennis
not too happy with that, but the majority of the classes I wanted to take were online) and am in a higher level for my Korean class than I thought I would be, but Jin is also with me in this harder class! 
I was also very freaked out about being in over my head, and while it is going to be difficult the first day proved that I am not acutally the worst one in the class! 
Everyone is pretty much sort of like "WTF how are we in lvl 3?? 
" together haha
) it was at the very edge of campus that is at the very top of this huge huge huge hill that would take like 20min to walk to. Now I'm going to try to take a photography class instead. In order to start being an adult and everything, I've started doing the whole looking-for-a-job thing 
I've applied to one place, mostly only because Sonia, someone I met through Tumblr, has been helping me so so soooo much 
She looked over my sad little resume & cover letter and helped me improve both tremendously 
I recently drilled Jenny about what she uses for make & skin care to try out whatever I could get my hands on. Right now I'm using 
Missha M VITA Moisture Sun BB Cream
and Benefit's Get Even pressed powder The bb cream is GREAT for my dry skin thought a bit sheer and I've only used the pressed powder a few times but it looks soooo nice!! 
Ty Jenny 
A-ah and one thing before I get to the pictures; I bought a tablet! 
This is sort of another 'thank you' to the people who helped me pick the my Wacom Bamboo I've never drawn on a tablet before! It's really a lot of fun, but I'm still learning, especially how to colour. But it's so fun being able to draw and not feel like I'm wasting paper~ 
So I am going to try to start updating every week to week and a half. This will make my entries much shorter and possibly with few pictures, but it is so sad for me to look at my LJ and see an update once a month! And I am not really very detailed about the things that go on because if I type too much it just makes the entries GIGANTIC. So I want to balance out the word-to-picture ratio here by making posts smaller but more frequent Hope that's ok~And going to take a lot more pictures. I mean, I don't know if I will post them often but I don't take as many pictures as I really want! And I'm pretty much always carrying around my camera, too, so wtf self!! Especially if I am able to take this photography class; I know I'm no photographer, but I want to know how to REALLY use my camera (I don't take advantage of the fact that it is a mini-DSLR very well).
So it's almost time for me to be going back to Korea I'm not sad about leaving, but I wouldn't be sad about staying! Maybe I just wasn't gone long enough, but I felt no reverse culture shock (I didn't really feel any in Korea, either, though). I never felt 'omg i miss Korea/America/this or that'. I have never been the type that goes 'omg I'm in (insert place)!!!1!' no matter where I've gone I do always feel very satisfied being in places I like or enjoy. I guess it's just my personality~ anyone else do this, too? I don't wanna feel so weird...
Not a terrible amount, especially when i was with my friends, but I am still excited to see him when go back~ (and tbh, I think he has missed me a lot 
I don't blame him, though. while I'm here relaxing and hanging out, he is having to go to work and be responsible). And I also have moments where I become really sad I'm leaving my friends/family 
Before i left Korea, my laptop suddenly wouldn't turn on 
I took it to an apple retailer in Hongdae, but it acutally turned on when I was there (of course 
) but the man said it was probably an ~$800 fix
i was like HELL NO and figured I should just buy a new Macbook instead of an $800 repair! So when I arrived in Spokane, mom and dad took me to the new Apple store (we never use to have one on the east side of Washington) and I gave to them. they were going to ship it out for a flat repair fee of $310 no matter what the problem 
Better than $800 or having to buy a new one! A week later they get it back and I go in to pick it up and.........the repairs were free Somehow the awesome guy there managed to put it under a warranty from when I had issues two summers ago since I had let him know about it 
So awesomeeeee Mac may be pricey but so far both times I've had a problem that weren't my fault at all, I got them fixed for free! 
My brother had an extra case of his Proactive face care stuff around the house, so I started to use it 
My skin recently has been AWFUL 
So much under-the-skin crap around my chin, I was becoming so self-conscious and was really hating on my face 
IDK what it was or what happened, but since I started using it I've noticed my skin has become better. It's still not that great, and the Proactive has made it hella dry, but I'm willing to have dry skin for a while if it means my acne goes away 
rage. i mostly got things i wanted to buy in america, but i also bought a new purse & shoes. i acutally haven't really spent any money here yesterday was the first time i bought anything outside of the airport; we never went "out" enough an when i did my mom just paid for it for me! ty mom~ for all the starbucks, the random bathroom things i wanted and for driving everywhere 
she had taken time off while i was here so i've been with her like all the time lol
thankful
derp derp derp occasionally i do things, but it's also just so COLD outside that i never want to leave my apartment! so i have no idea why i haven't done anything on lj...super laziness, i guess. wanna eat my mom's food, see my friends and stock up on things i can buy for way cheaper in the states though in korea he's already 29 (and i'm 23 ). so this up coming weekend is pretty much going to be his birthday weekend or something~ ALL ABOUT HIM! secret garden ok so this is a big deal for me because i usually do not really enjoy very many dramas (or many tv shows in general) i get bored easily. so when i DO find one i like, i just love it to death gil raim (the girl) is so cool & strong i wanna be like her 
she's my faaavorite.
full
yeaaah winter vacation for me!! my finals, uh, well...they're done~ i don't have my grades for any of them yet (i'm not sure when i'm supposed to have them) but all i REALLY care about is korean. plz to be letting me move onto lvl 2! with the semester ending also comes people leaving 
booo. most people are only here for one semester, so i've been having to say goodbye to a lot of people recently some of them are probably permanent goodbyes and others are most definitely not going to be forever if i have anything to say about it 
i'm sick i went to the school clinic today and, per usual, was done and had medicine in my hands within five minutes of walking through the door it's just that walking home seemed to take forever and i was exhausted just from that. been sleeping for about half the day today...
oh! so i went to the YG family concert a few weeks ago. i didn't bring my camera because i was going to be in the standing-only section and didn't want to risk breaking it idk, the concert was...hm it was entertaining but such a 'big' concert is not really my thing...? idk if i'll go to another kpop concert in the future (if i have to pay for it). also, i've sort of falling out of love with kpop recently maybe due to over-exposure. but that aside, i really, really loved gummy! total girl-crush on her. everyone else was really very good and know how to put on a show! last saturday (i also didn't take pictures of this, idk why) but there was another smallish tumblr meet in hongdae~ and i brought jin along with me (shiela and katie, other exchange students, met up with us, too~). we went to one bar then moved on to a club/bar called papa gorilla's. the drinks were SO cheap 
though the place was really crowded but since we had our own group i really didn't care. & since i don't go out often, this was really fun for meee 
the moment i get alcohol in my system and there's loud music playing...wow i suddenly don't care that i'm a bad dancer and just dance anyway 
lol~ ah ah and one more thing
originally my mom was going to be visiting me at the end of january. but because of a few things, plans were changed so that i'm now acutally going to be going back to the states for about two weeks instead 
i'm excited but also sort of like 'wow, really...?' at how i'm going back. though i do miss my mom's food a lot~ 
hope you all know how much i appreciate you~ the comments i receive really lift my spirits 
sick
i think this happens about every two months. then i catch a look at my hair and i realize how long it is and i LOVE it! so idk why i'm still wanting to get a cool/chic short cut...
not to mention i really don't think a short hair cut would fit my face. especially the kind i'm thinking of 
like he doesn't realize how big of a deal it is for a girl with thin hair/hair that hates to grow to just CUT IT ALL OFF 
( ) idk, i don't wanna rant about that, i just think i want to try to have my own site. if i did do this, i'd most def. make the transition over winter break when i have WAY more free time.kingdom hearts: 358/2 days (b/c there was no shipping to korea, boo). it has really re-sparked my obsession with kingdom hearts omg. and with wanting to play video games. but b/c all i have are my DS and my phone, i've had to be satisfied with that. i'm also playing a mobile MMORPG called pocket legends! it's like a mini WoW! 
haha i play it with keunseok, which makes it even better level 8 i love this campaign we are so awesome and i love my character, wisit. i have a lot of ideas about her floating around in my head that i want to put down in our campaign's wiki.
dorky
so i got the scores for my written and listening midterm back earlier this week. let's just say i need to study more i hate getting bad scores (who doesn't?) hallowee~n! 
the only solid plan i have for this weekend is watching scary movies with keunseok 
he hates scary movies and doesn't even like me watching them. but i made him promise that halloween weekend, he would watch some with me recently i finished reading scott pilgrim! loooove it 
originally i thought the art was so-so, i've totally changed my mind. the details on small things like all the different outfits, hair, etc is really great 
the the style grew on me a lot, too. i finally found what seems to be a good rip of the movie! i'm pretty positive it's not coming to korea in theaters. sooo this will do~![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.1){kind=small}
krissasaur gave me some AWESOME manga recs, too! this guy tsutsui tetsuya has good thriller manga. horror/thriller & scifi is my favorite manga stuff to read aaand i finally bought kingdom hearts 385/2 except that my DS died after playing for 30min and when i went to go plug it in, the adapter didn't work! i think i need to buy a korean one, but since the stores only have DSi in stores, i have to buy one online. i want to play so badly! it was so good for just those 30min...
sleepy
