Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto
Konichiwa!

I haven't bought tickets yet, but I'm almost assuredly going to Japan for a week during my summer break. Yay!!! I will be going with Jaclyn, a member of the Pyeongtaek gang. We haven't planned out any kind of itinerary yet, but we have decided that we will be flying in and out of Osaka, not Tokyo. We will not be going to Tokyo. This is due to time constraints. We want to go to Kyoto and nearby Nara as those cities are the cultural centers of Japan. Tokyo is just a big city. I can do without it. Also, we want to go to Hiroshima and that is even more south. It just would not be possible to go to Tokyo as well as all the other places in a week.

One of my co-teachers (Ms. Lee) is going to the US over summer break to visit her sister who lives in North Carolina. Because of this, she is missing the English Camp. Also because of this, the principal and vice-principal are very not happy with her. I personally think it's a good thing to have your English teacher visit an English speaking country, but hey. What do I know? Then I found out today that my other co-teacher (Ms. Kwan) had been planning on going to England this summer but had to cancel her plans because she has to be at the English Camp. I felt really bad. Stupid English Camp.

Will has a plane ticket to fly home to the US this Thursday (until mid-August sometime, as he's renewing his contract). However, he woke up last night and could hardly breathe, and ended up taking a taxi to the hospital at 4am. Turns out he might have tonsilitis. I say *might* because he really has no idea what's going on because no one there speaks English. I went to visit him in the hospital today and he looks pretty bad (but apparently looked a lot better than he did in the morning). Anyway, the doctor there wants him to stay in the hospital until Friday. Uh-oh! Remember, he is supposed to catch a plane home on Thursday! The doctor thinks that Will should be completely healthy before flying while Will just doesn't want to die on the flight home. So they're at odds. Also, the thing is that Will's brother is getting married that Saturday...so he has to be home for that! Man, poor Will. Well, his brother is getting as close to married as possible since he's gay.

I was watching Oprah last night (it's on TV here) and it was about gay people and the struggle they've had with acceptance and stuff because they were gay. It gets me SO angry. I really just can't comprehend how such a blatant form of discrimination is sanctioned by pretty much every state and the nation as a whole. Gay people should be able to get married, adopt children, serve in the military openly (if they so wished...), etc. Honestly, I don't understand the intolerance our country has with people who are gay. It sickens and saddens me. The fact that so much of it can be rooted to religion doesn't help up my opinion of religions, either. Ugh. Ok, I don't want to get into a big diatribe now, so I'll stop.

I felt like I had other things to say but I don't remember now. Soon I need to figure out how to go about 1) extending my visa, and 2) applying for my pension refund. My visa is only valid until Aug. 14, but I'll be here until Sept. 1. You only have 10 days after your visa expires to leave the country, so I need to extend my visa to the end of my contract (Aug. 31). Also, all year I've been paying into the Korean pension fund, but because of an agreement Korea has with the US, I should get it all back. So I have to go fill out forms and the government will then transfer the money directly into my US bank account. Also, for working in Korea for a full year you get a bonus month's pay. So I need to figure out who gives it to me and how I go about getting it. Unfortunately, my school is absolutely clueless about everything. Also, they'll probably send me to do it myself and the forms will all be in Korean or something. Bah. Well, it'll all work out. I hope.