I mean, the other thing is,

not much happens here because I don't go out due to not having money, not being able to eat, having to cook & clean, and now my Saturday classes. So there's never too much really to report.

I guess one little nugget is my friend Jess, whom I adore, is a bit off her rocker. She takes EVERYTHING super personally. At wine night, she felt like the Canadians mocking America were mocking her. Then there's a girl, one girl, who was a bitch to her. So Jess got up in the middle of wine night & just left, without saying a word. She left the chat & everything. Later she said it's just the one girl she doesn't like. 1 girl out of like 20. Really, she needed to leave the group for that? Well she felt like she did. Jess had also created a meme chat, which only me & a few others she knows well are in, definitely not the offending girl nor most of wine chat, but she quit that chat too. I've talked her out of doing this before when she took people not replying to her message in the wine chat right away on a Friday afternoon badly, but at this point, I don't feel like trying to reason with her. & I think the wine chat girls are done with her drama. So I just see her on her own or with a girl we met who moved down to where I live.

In February, as you know, mom came to visit! It was great to see her. though it was then that I learned she's been totally & completely brainwashed by Fox News. Everything from Brett Kavanaugh to the concept of privilege she is adamantly on the side of Trump & Trump supporters. As much as I love him, I blame Neil. Well at least we both agree the BBC is reliable.

I'm glad she got to meet most of my friends, & we did end up staying at a jimjilbang the night before the tour of the DMZ (I stayed on the bus & napped). I do wish she'd listened to me when I said we should go to some places where I can't eat so she could try a lot more stuff. She said she doesn't really eat rice, so that eliminated a lot of things, especially bibimbap, which seriously everyone should try. While she had no love for my blood sausage soup, the other soups she tried she loved. After she got back, she wanted to try to make one of the soups she had, & asked the names of them in case there was a place in Chicago that served them.

So, I mean, that's all I can think of for now. I spilled something on my computer so now several keys don't work, so I need a new keyboard to use until I can get home & upgrade the computer (though won't do that if I haven't found a job to do).

So really, you can consider yourself all caught up. Hurray hurrah hurray.

So, backwards ho!

Well I already mentioned Leo's Saturday classes. The owner being the pain in the ass she is found more students who also want to take a class on Saturday. Apparently more to have their own class, rather than joining Leo's (not that I have any idea what their level is, hence if they even COULD join Leo's class. But this being Korea, level is irrelevant because it's all about age. Dumb asses). Again, more money is great, but I want my fucking weekend. I don't want to be working 1/2 a day on Saturdays as well. But money. But fucking my Saturdays. There we are on that.

My trip to Laos complicated my leaving date, because the day I fly back in is the day for the cheapest airfare. The guy found another flight that leaves on the 20-somethingth, with an 11-hour layover in Taiwan. SOOOOO not ideal, but it will be from 10:30 AM, so I can at least go out & do something in Taipei. So I can live with it. Just.

Long time no see

Yes yes, I know, it has been quite a while. So hopefully I'll update in several posts. It's just that, between reading, starting the search for remote jobs for when I leave Korea, and working on grad school stuff (have to get my CV finished), the blog definitely falls to the wayside these days. Prior to this, what's my excuse? Too much nonsense. Honestly, especially when it's a cleaning weekend, time seems at a special premium & I've been unable to do it all. 2 weekends ago I was supposed to clean, but I was so sick from a cold, I just couldn't do it. I'm also teaching a Saturday class for my favorite student, Leo (the owner's son). I'm his favorite teacher, & we don't have class together this semester, so I think he asked his mom if she could figure something out. Her solution was I'd teach him for 1.5-2 hours each Saturday. I was NOT excited about working on a Saturday, though I do love Leo & the extra money is definitely going to help. It's in the evening, so at least I can lay in bed & read & take my time doing stuff, which is my thing on the weekends, but early evening is also when I usually start cooking or cleaning, so I'm losing my prime Saturday activity time. Not to mention complicating if I can go anywhere after on Saturday nights, since I get out at 8:30. But Leo's great; hell, in our second class, he told me he'd been looking forward to Saturday all week so he could see me! Cute little bugger.

So we'll start recently and work our way backward, shall we? We shall. The most recent thing is I had a big old health check last week. Do I need to mention AGAIN how much I LOVE the system here? It's efficient, SOOOOO affordable... I could go on, but you get the point. We did full blood work, urine, thyroid ultrasound, uterine ultrasound, PAP smear, mammogram, & colonoscopy. All for $180.

Blood work & urine were all fine. My thyroid levels are a little high, which might be indicative that my body isn't completely converting the pills I take to the active form of the hormone, which is actually common with the usual meds. However, it could also be because I haven't been taking iodine & tyrosene because I honestly forgot about them. So, I'll get those again, plus she increased my dosage, so we'll see how it goes next time. The other great news is that apparently several months ago when we did the full blood works, my thyroid antibodies were gone, so my body isn't actively destroying it anymore. In short, yep, my aggravating & extremely limited (albeit really healthy) diet has done what it ideally is supposed to.

We'll need a breast ultrasound because mine are rather dense, which I knew. So we're doing that in June. Not sure why the wait, & wondering if I shouldn't ask about doing it sooner since I'm leaving, but hopefully there won't be anything to be concerned about. (I know my breasts can be a bit cystic as well.) The only bad thing was that apparently I have an ulcer. How perfect, yet unsurprising, given the leaky gut theory. I can't feel it; she prescribed some medication for it, & just said to avoid spicy foods (pretty easily done, except that Jessie took me to a great kimchi jiggae chain & there's one near my train station). Hopefully that will get straightened out, however that is done.