amen.

i am looOOOoosing it. i've been studying for my last two finals tomorrow and it's approaching 3am. i forgot how enjoyable it is to lose all grasp on sanity... everything has been HI-larious to me tonite. i love it when i laugh so hard i can't breathe and my lungs feel like they're going to collapse.

but i'm hitting the point where i can't retain anything. i read the same line over and over again and have no idea what i just read. and the more i study, the more confused i get. and i'm so pooped but completely hopped up on caffeine and sugar, so i don't think sleeping is an option right now. AND i didn't leave the dorms today (other than to occasionally step outside for a smoke... i mean, fresh air...), so i'm getting a little stir crazy. and did i mention that i think i'm losing it?




but to end on a happier note, i downloaded 'the office: christmas special' and watched part 1 this morning. i really do think that show is total brilliance, but the xmas special (at least part 1) was just kind of depressing... still funny, but depressing.

it snowed for the first time in korea yesterday afternoon. and it was the best kind of snow (minus the acid rain part), big fat flakes falling pretty heavily. unfortunately, it didn't snow for very long so none of it stuck. but the best part was seeing the reaction on the face of one of the exchange students from australia who had never seen snow falling before. it appeared to be an equal mixture of excitement and elation (whoa, i almost wrote 'elatedness' instead of 'elation').

so i ended up having a thanksgiving dinner last night after all. the uc eap folks were so great to hook us up, even though a handful of us weren't uc students. it was really lovely and there was so much great food. it wasn't quite like home, but i was so thankful be surrounded by people that i have so much love for.

i recieved the new 446 double disc in the mail the other day... i could listen to them all day long and be so happy. favorites so far include 'gay marriage (promosexuality)' and 'my what is like whoa.' and, of course, i've always had a soft spot for 'bangers and hash.' am i the only one that thinks d sounds like mc chris/mc pee pants/sir loin (that's not a bad thing, i swear!)?? anyway.. best study music ever.

so it's finally been decided. mark your mental calendars (in pen!), i'll be coming back to america on december 12. i'll be around for about 3 weeks before coming back to korea, a few days after new years. that should give me just enough time to readjust to the time change and clean wisconsin air before i come back to polluted seoul and cough my lungs away. wee!

other than that, things are going swimmingly here. i took my first of four finals today, but it happened to be the easiest one, so it wasn't too terrible. i've been spending this last week pretty consistently going through the same routine: sleep, class, eat, nap, study, sleep, repeat. it reminds me a lot of studying for finals in madison with sam (except, replace "class, nap, and study" with "people watch at college library for 15 hours a day"). ah, good times...

you know what's awesome? when you can't get through a day without taking a nap... and by 'awesome,' i mean 'pathetic.'

last night i fell asleep around 10pm... it was a saturday night. i got into bed to rest my eyes for a couple of minutes and then woke up this morning. pretty sad, yes?

oh, korea. what have you done to me?

long time no postie!

my visa extension is finally being processed! i ventured over to the immigration office this morning with all the paperwork necessary in hand, and myself fully ready to cry on cue if they turned me away again. thank God it didn't come to tears (but don't think for a second that i wouldn't have done it). anyway, all's well and i just took an awesome nap and now it's the weekend!

unfortunately, i have finals next week. okay, seriously this time, WHERE HAS ALL THE TIME GONE? i feel like i just arrived here last week and now all of a sudden i'm going to be tested on all of the korean i've learned (or not learned)? i wasn't too worried about studying, but apparently, our final's going to be slightly more complicated than our midterms. and just witnessing other people freak out is making me pretty damn nervous.

yesterday, i finally mosied my way up to the top of the mountain that yonsei is (kind of) settled on. it was a pretty trying experience for someone who doesn't exercise and smokes on a daily basis. and it was slightly discouraging to see all of the older couples just zip right by me on their trek skywards, but with a little fortitude and some encouragement from ben, i made it alright (really, it wasn't that bad... i'm dramatizing for the sake of a more interesting post. is it working?). it definately made me rethink smoking those last 20 packs or so of cigarettes though...

the view at the top was fantastic though. the city kind of sprawled out from every direction, and i just felt so peaceful and at home... i love that seoul feels like home to me now. it was a little 'foggy' out, so we couldn't see the horizon clearly, but i think it was almost prettier that way. it made it seem like the city kept stretching on forever. i hope my pictures turn out okay...



and on one last note, i'm so sad to be missing tha 446/dpc show on friday. will i ever get another oppurtunity to see tha 446 live again? can't wait to get the new double disc in the mail...

http://www.iloveegg.com/winopen_ani/eggsong.htm

oh my dear lord...

PRESIDENT BERRY.
borrowed from the westwash.

i've been appreciating autumn so much more here in seoul. my campus here is really lovely, and the temperature has been fairly warm during the day, not so cold at night. it's difficult for me to put into words how incredible the color change is in the trees... the reds are REALLY red, the golds are REALLY gold, etc (worst description of anything... EVER). it looks like someone colored each leaf with crayola markers. every morning when i take my 30 second walk to class, all i have to do is turn my head slightly to the right, and i can see all these stunning trees set against the mountains. i can't imagine a better view to wake up to each morning.

not to say that fall in wisco isn't beautiful... but there's just something really mesmerizing about being in a foreign country and witnessing the seasons change.

tomorrow is peppero day in korea. peppero is a company that makes these long, thin cookies dipped in chocolate... apparently, when this 'holiday' first started, you were supposed to give peppero to your boyfriend/girlfriend, but now it's just a day where you give and recieve it from your friends... it's kind of like valentine's day, only the peppero company basically declared it as their own. i guess if hershey's declared a 'hershey's day,' it would kind of be like this. valentine's is already pretty much hershey's day anyway.

more later as i'm still half asleep from the nap i just woke up from...

seriously, what the hell happened? i really believed that our country would smarten up and elect kerry. i feel so dejected and i've lost some (but not all) of my faith in the american people.

hopefully, someday i'll be able to look back on this election and realize that we made the right decision, but i highly (HIGHLY) doubt that.

i have to go to class soon. everytime i think about the election and what's being decided in america right now, i feel like vomiting. let's hope wisco (and the rest of the country) doesn't blow it this time...

i started out this past weekend feeling a hint of homesickness. i think it had a lot to do with the fact that i had a chance to talk to sam, and she was talking about the upcoming halloween weekend. it made me sad to think that i was going to miss another madison halloween. it's just always such a great opportunity to hang out with all your friends, even the ones that have moved away, and just run around state st amid all the chaos.

i ended up having a lot of fun this weekend though. it was 3 peoples birthdays (all on oct 31) this weekend, so there was a lot of celebrating on friday and saturday nights. on saturday night, all three parties somehow ended up at the same bar and it was crowded as hell, but that made it all so much better. and there's no bar time in korea, so most nights-out end sometime the next morning. everything seems like a blur now... lots of good food, good friends, an 'almost' fight with some random strangers on the street (koreans have some nasty nasty tempers when they're drunk... well, i guess when they're sober too), and just a really great weekend in general. it made me feel not so bad about missing halloween... i mean, what'd i miss really? possibly a riot, maybe a few small fires on state st, a couple of broken shop windows and a lot of police standing around.

today, i went to the immigration office for the second time. i went last friday and arrived before they opened, so i had some time to fill out all my paperwork and i ended up being 6th in line, which was unexpected. when i actually got to the window, the immigration officer told me that i was missing a paper and pretty much shut me down. i guess i needed a receipt from yonsei university stating that i had paid my tuition. it wasn't really a big deal since i figured i would be missing paperwork and would need to come back. so i went back today with everything i was told to bring, and the officer (the same troll as before) told me that i needed ANOTHER document in order to extend my visa. what the hell? would it have been so difficult for her to tell me that when i was there last week? i feel like every time i go now, she's going to tell me one more item to bring. i'm foreseeing the rest of my afternoons here in korea spent waiting at the immigration office.

and i can't even travel outside of the country with the visa i have now. if i decide travel in november (like i planned on), i have to go to the immigration office in that country and file for a visa there. HOW DOES THIS MAKE ANY SENSE? if i want to go to china or thailand for four days, i have to spend one day at the immigration office there... and my visa application wouldn't even be processed in the time i would be there. so they're basically telling me that once i leave the country, i won't be getting back in any time soon. this is all kinds of retarded and makes me so frustrated just typing it out. i guess it's my own damn fault for letting someone else take care of my visa application back at home instead of doing all the paperwork myself. maybe then i wouldn't be stuck with this useless peice of crap c-3 student visa.

then it started to rain freezing acid rain on me while i stomped and pouted my way back to the subway station. it's a good thing i love this country so damn much...



election day is tomorrow (today?)! i'm nervous for the results, but i have a lot of faith in humanity, so hopefully bush will go down in flames. just thinking about the possibility that bush might be reselected (as jason so nicely put it), makes me want to hurl. i almost want to skip class tomorrow and watch the results on tv because i think i'll be too antsy to sit around and wait until the afternoon...