Honestly, now.

This blog is brought to by the letters M, D, Q, L, J, B, W, C, and F.

M:  This would not be possible without Mom.  She has been EXTREMELY helpful in getting rather important documents where they need to be as well as listening to rants and rambles at odd hours of the day.  Oh yeah, and she sends me goodies (when I have an address).

M is also for Mary.  She’s been there for myself and Badugi.  My experience here would be much less colorful had I not known her.

D:  Dad, of course.  He takes care of the Corolla.  Which I really appreciate.    He also keeps me updated on life on the farm when he picks up the phone.

Q:  Q is for Qing.   He has been wonderful to me.  He keeps me from being homesick by sending things like oatmeal and coffee.  He’s always there to offer his ideas and thoughts, as well as make me feel better when I’m feeling not-so-marketable.  He’s also getting my criminal record check apostilled for me. 

L: L is for Lisa.  She sends me funny photos of a horse in a hat.  She came to visit last year, which was WONDERFUL!!!  Also, she has been instrumental in calming me down a few times.

J: J is for Joan.   Joan reminds me that I can always come home.  She’s been there (not Korea, but teaching abroad) and that helps.  Also, I get fun stories about the antics of my nephew.  I may dislike my students at time, but at least they aren’t as poopy as my nephew can be.

B: B is for Becky, who not-so-secretly rejoices that I might becoming home due to visa issues.  Warm fuzzies.  She let me crash at her place during the 6 weeks that I was at home.   She also tells me the fun things that she’s taught our nephew (chicky-chicky-bow-bow).

W: W is for Wade, who is giving me the email and an intro to a friend of his that is living and working in Taiwan.  It’s all about connections, baby.

C:  C is for many people.  Namely, Chris, Corinne, and Carina.  Chris for being my buddy and offering to go out on new adventures with me.  Corinne for loving animals as much as I do (and possibly more).  She stops by occasionally for coffee and cooks for me sometimes.  Carina is back at home at the moment, but she’s returning soon.  She offered her apartment to me (in case I was homeless while she was gone).

F:  F is for friends and family that didn’t fit into my letter categories.   Joe, Kelly, Irina, and Rachel have all made my life better.

Thank you.  Now back to our regularly scheduled blog……

This makes me giggle.

Visa status: AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!! Don’t be silly. (Yeah, still nothing on that front.)

I’m in a really good mood. One of my friends expressed their surprise at my being so chipper. After pondering a bit, I discovered that I really enjoy being on the cusp of a large decision. The potential of the moment makes me slightly giddy. Sure, it’s stressful. But it’s also interesting. I like the fact that I don’t know what country I’ll be in when 2008 hits.

And being freaked out about the current state of events will get me exactly nowhere.

I decided that, in light of my lack of clues, I should take advantage of a good haircut while it is still available. Okay, okay, I was also bored out of my mind. There’s a limit to how may times a day I can check my email and browse job sites. It’s a pretty high limit, but a limit nonetheless. And you get a scalp massage when your hair is being shampooed. After bemusing my hair “designer” (Kim: How is work? Me: It’s not.) I wandered off to find some running clothes. After getting fed up with the crowds and the noise, I retreated back to my apartment to check my email. Again.

I ran across some ads for employment at my school. They are ONLY looking for F-2 and F-4 visas. I’m taking this to mean that they cannot provide E-2 sponsorship. This is not good for my hope of further employment at that school. Pity. The money was really good. With about a year left before I want to start school, I am hesitant to tie myself to a contract. I would under two condition. One, Chris would come with me to Taiwan. I’d love to visit another country, but I’m not up to making all new friends. Two, I would work a short-term contract. Or a series of short time contracts. I’d like to remain (primarily) legit. I’ve already sent out a few emails to see what’s out there.

I’m EXTREMELY hesitant to harass my school about my visa. Mostly because I don’t want to lose my living space. I’m thinking that they are kind of hoping that I’ll just go away. I feel bad. They were unfairly put in this situation. However, they did a crap job of communicating with me about it. So I’m not feeling too charitable towards them. Meh. I’m not going to worry about it.

Anyways, Badugi would really like to go out and I would really like to NOT clean up after a leaky dog.

Here’s my haircut. (If you care. And even if you don’t.)

It’s actually no longer Christmas here in Korealand, eight minutes past in fact. However, since I’m stuck waiting up another three hours so that I can call my family (because if I go to bed, they will call me and I’ll be FUN to talk to), I thought I’d post a nice. holiday blog. Hurrah, go me. First, I went into Seoul the other day and took a few fun photos of just random stuff.

A lot of my friends friends and family have expressed concerns that I would be lonely during this holiday season.

I don’t know where on earth you would get this idea.

Anyways, it’s been a quiet day. Corinne was planning on making the traditional huge dinner for Irina and myself. However, Corinne decided to indulge in her other holiday tradition: getting horribly sick. She’ll be okay; she went to the doctor. Instead of chili at Corinne’s house, we had chicken soup at mine. Prior to that, I spent most of my day watching t.v. and playing skype-tag. Okay, mostly watching t.v. And eating chocolate. (see above photo). I feel some nasty new year’s resolutions coming on. *sigh.

Anyways, in the spirit of the holidays, relfection, blah, blah, blah, I have to admit that I’m pretty happy. I’m minus a visa, but besides that, life is good.

Happy holidays from Anne and Badugi.

Visa status: No clue.

Nothing terribly exciting. I went into Seoul to join a friend’s Christmas party. Ahhh……good times. Anyways, Corinne and I found a cardboard cutout that was just too good to resist.