I'm So Excited!!!
I just can't hide it...

One more day at school left!!! So, tomorrow I have to teach 4 classes, then I'm DONE...FOREVER!! I am so tired, it's not even funny. With trying to pack and clean, I am exhausted this week. To top it off, I've had to go out to dinner numerous times this week, thus cutting into valuable time at my apartment. I had to go out to dinner with the whole school on Tuesday night (in honor of the new teachers and those who are leaving). School dinners drag on FOREVER. Seriously. Even if I spoke Korean they'd drag on forever. Seriously, I think we had like 10 courses. And the principal kept handing me raw crab to eat. Nasty. Besides the fact that you had to slurp it out of the shell. Ewwwww. So that night blew hardcore, as I think we were in the restaurant for over 2 hours. And I had to sit near the "Big Wigs."

Then after I got home Will came over to visit with me. Which was nice, but I was really tired. So I didn't do anything that night.

Tonight I went out to dinner with my old co-teacher. I had to give her some English math books that my dad brought over for me to give to her. It was nice seeing her again, but again...I was tired and just wanted to stay home.

Tomorrow night Charlie and Will are both coming over to say goodbye to me. But I think I'm pretty much done packing. And whether or not I clean any more depends on how nice I'm feeling. I probably won't clean anymore. It's not too bad. It's not like it was super clean when I moved in. Plus, my replacement isn't moving in until Sept. 8, so they have time to clean it themselves (my school).

I'm a little worried about my suitcases. I got everything packed up and fit into my 3 suitcases, but then I went to move them and my big suitcase had to have weighed 150 lbs. Seriously. I don't have a scale, so I can't weigh them. But I was certain it had to be over 70 lbs...and you can't have any luggage over 70 lbs (if it's over 50 lbs you have to pay a $50 fee...which I most certainly will have to do for at least one of my bags). So I had to open them all up again and I ended up throwing out more clothes. There's a big pile of clothes that I'm leaving here. Hmmm. Oh well. I hope everything is under 70 lbs, at least. My carry-on suitcase is pretty heavy...I think I'll have a hard time hefting it up into the overhead bin things.

I also thought my co-teacher was going to give me a ride to the bus terminal on Friday morning. Which would have been nice because I have 3 suitcases plus my laptap bag. So I was worried about getting to the bus terminal on my own. But it turns out she's not. But she will stop by my apartment before I leave to get my key...I hope she helps me bring my bags to the taxi stand. Otherwise I might be in trouble. Or I could try and communicate to the security people to call one for me...even though there's a line of them a block or so away. I don't know. I hate dealing with a crap-load of luggage. Especially on shitty Korean sidewalks.

I'm also betting 9 million dollars my co-teacher will show up late so I'll have to take a bus at a later time than I want. I'm pretty sure if I miss the bus I want to take it'll be more than fine, but I like to be early. I hope there's not a lot of traffic going into Seoul at 8:30-9am on Friday morning. My co-teacher assures me there wouldn't be...but she's Korean.

I found out more info on my replacement. The last you heard about him all we knew was that it was "a man with blue eyes." I have since found out that he is from Canada. Also, my co-teacher told me, "His name is Zico." Whaa?? Zico?? What an odd name. Then I had a weird train of thought: 1) He sounds Latino or something. 2) Wait, he's from Canada. 3) Well, he could be a Brazilian-Canadian or something. 3) Wait, he has blue eyes. 4) So maybe he just has a weird-ass name. Anyway, I then thought that it's most probable that his last name is Zico, not his first name, like I was thinking. Hey, when someone says to you, "His name is Zico," you generally don't assume they mean the last name. But then I remembered I'm dealing with Koreans. When I first arrived in Korea my name apparently was Emily Christopher Son. And this one kid they thought was named King Brian, instead of Brian King. Hahahahahaha!!!! So it's probably his last name. But it's still kinda weird.

Anyway, he's coming Sept. 8. I wrote him a long letter about the apartment and how random things work, and what buses go where and stuff. I hope he appreciates it.

Yeah, so today after lunch the teachers were all freaking out and rearranging the English room because I guess there was going to be some conference where they discuss some English thing and Sosabul was hosting it. I was really tired and annoyed because I didn't know what was going on and I was not looking forward to sitting in a meeting spoken all in Korean. I just wanted to go home and finish packing and sleep. Then at like 3:00, my vice-principal looks at me and says, "Why are you here?? This is your free time!" I didn't understand what she meant by that, so I just made a confused face. Then she says, "Go home!!" and starts yelling at my co-teacher. I presume for not telling me that I could have gone home after lunch. Which really would have been nice to know. So that annoyed me. But at least I didn't have to sit through that friggin' meeting.

I'm really going to try and go home after lunch tomorrow, as I don't teach any classes after lunch. It's weird enough as it is, because the 4 classes I teach in the morning I have to teach with the new English teacher who I just met. Seriously, I'm leaving tomorrow...can you not just give me the day off?? Whatever. What can you do?

I got all my crap straightened out, I hope. I transfered all my money to my US account and closed my Korean account. All my money transfered ok. I got my visa extension all set, and I filled out the requisite paper work for my pension money refund. I'm pretty much packed and the apartment is cleaned enough. I took out a couple massive bags of trash and these 2 ladies were staring at me. I wished I could have explained to them that I'm moving out...it's not like I'm this incredibly wasteful person who goes through hoards of trash each week. I think there's a bin around my apartment somewhere to throw old clothes you don't want anymore. I need to find that. I'm also leaving lots of shoes here, which makes me cringe a bit. But not like I can't buy shoes in the US.

I need to shower now. I don't have any sheets to sleep on the next 2 nights because I had to wash the only set I have...and I have to wash them early because they need to dry on a "clothes line." Yeah, so I'm going to go shower now and then pass out on a naked mattress. Which, I just found out after stripping off all mattress padding, is a Verlo, made in America. It must be the hardest friggin' mattress America makes. It's like brick wrapped in cloth. Actually, I'm used to it. Ok, ok...shower...